Parents, be patient. Adolescent brains really don't mature enough to handle multiple tasks until the late teens.
One task at a time
Adolescent brains develop at their own pace
By Deane Morrison
Published on June 7, 2005
If you have teenagers at home, you don't need to be told how
hard it can be to get them to act like adults, especially with any
task that requires strategic or organized thinking. "I asked her to
take out the garbage, sweep the kitchen floor, and take the dog for
a walk," said one mother of a 13-year-old. "After the third thing,
she said, 'No, no, no--just one thing at a time!'" The good news is
that teens aren't just being difficult: Their brains really don't
mature enough to handle multiple tasks until the late teens, long
after they've acquired the skills to handle most single tasks
assigned to them. The bad news is that because their multitasking
ineptitude has a biological basis, you'll have to be patient. A
study headed by Monica Luciana, University associate professor of
psychology, shows that different types of skills develop at
different ages. Working with children between 9 and 17 and U of M
students 18-20, Luciana gave them a series of tasks that tested the
abilities of the prefrontal cortex, an area of the cerebrum in the
most frontal part of the brain, in the region located behind the
eyes. The tasks: 1--Recognize a face after a short interval.
2--Note the location of a dot on a computer screen and, several
seconds after it disappears, point to the location.
3--Remember a sequence of simple events and reproduce them in
order.
4--Remember a similar sequence of events and put them in reverse
order.
5--Open a series of boxes on a computer screen, some of which have
hidden items inside. Retrieve a certain number of hidden items and
remember where items were found as the search continues. The
research team found that simply recognizing something familiar
(task 1) was already mature before age 9; in contrast, children's
ability to remember single bits of spatial information (task 2)
continued to develop until ages 11 to 12, and their ability to
recall several bits of information (tasks 3 and 4) kept developing
until they were 13 to 15. But the kind of strategic thinking
necessary for multitasking, as in task 5, didn't fully develop
until ages 16 to 17. To do well on this task, the subjects had to
exercise such skills as spatial memory, organization, continuous
updating of information and, especially, executive control--the
ability to use these skills at the same time, balancing them in a
way that allows maximal success on the task. This function is
particularly important when a task is new to a person or when a
high level of accuracy is demanded. "Because executive control has
been localized to a specific area of the prefrontal cortex, which
may be different than the regions that contribute to tasks 1-4, it
appears that different prefrontal regions reach functional maturity
at different rates," said Luciana. "If this finding can be
replicated, it has clinical implications for conditions such as
schizophrenia, which typically presents during adolescence and has
been associated with deviant patterns of organization and function
in the area of the prefrontal cortex associated with executive
control." Of course, this work helps us to understand normal
behavior as well. So don't ask your young teen to self-organize
tasks that would be hard for even a smart adult, unless you're
prepared for a few miscues or unless you're prepared to provide the
structure to help him or her finish the task. And that doesn't just
apply to household chores. Adults must be careful to keep in mind
the limitations of adolescents facing demands in the classroom or
in social situations, too, Luciana said. For example, situations
such as learning to drive a car, dividing one's time appropriately
during final exam time, or navigating a new school schedule might
be challenging for young teenagers.
The study was published in the May/June issue of the journal Child Development.