ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at change from a slightly different angle. It explores in more detail what the idea of a stage means. The chapter demonstrates some other aspects of growing up, and indicates how the link with brain development. It proposes a framework to help parents and carers make sense of the teenage years. The chapter explains some of the behaviours that mark this stage out as different from other stages. The transition from child to adult means that the young person is never quite sure where he or she stands. As far as the beginning of the stage is concerned, puberty is usually considered the most obvious marker. As far as the end of this stage is concerned, this is even more difficult to define than it is to identify the beginning of adolescence. There is common agreement that it takes longer today to reach adulthood than it did in previous generations.
