The Twelve-Year-Old: Growing Up
Growth Patterns
How does your twelve-year-old grow? With their friends, on the telephone, and in front of a mirror! Click below to find out about: Physical
High energy
Much rest needed
Growth spurt; signs of puberty
Menstruation for majority of girls
Food important, especially mid-morning in school
Physical education and sports valued Social
Adult personality begins to emerge
More reasonable, tolerant than at 11
Enthusiastic, uninhibited
Will initiate own activity
Empathetic
Self-aware, insightful
Can set realistic goals in the short-term
Appears secure
Peers more important than teachers Language
Sarcasm emerges
Double meanings, word play, jokes of intellectual interest
Enjoys conversation with adults and peers
Peer "vocabulary" (slang) important Cognitive
Increased ability to abstract in intellectual pursuits
May show emerging ability in a particular skill or content area
Can and will see both sides to an argument
High interest in current events, politics, social justice; also pop culture, materialism
Research and study skills advance with increase of organizational discipline From Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood, © 1997 by Northeast Foundation for Children (800) 360-6332. All rights reserved as permitted under the US copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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