“Creating a school environment that is responsive to the changing needs of young adolescents requires an understanding of their developmental changes. More importantly, however, it requires an understanding of how young adolescents perceive those changes. Their perceptions become their reality”. Understanding the young Adolescent’s Physical and Cognitive Growth

Whenever we talk about teaching, we cannot leave away from the learning subject-the students. As learner, they are changing every minute both on physical and mental conditions. The growth of young adolescents is seen as a special and crucial time for all children.

It is a significant time when they begin to discover and build their own world. Experiencing physical change during everyday life, boys and girls begin to realize the physical and psychological differences individually. Reaching puberty sometime leads low self-esteem to girls. They feel shy about their body. Comparing the changing of bodies in shower room, boys becomes to deem well maturity as advantage and pride. The sensitive psychological changes like the need for risk-taking, transformation from concrete to formal thoughts and the desire to be independent are all what teachers and parents need to notice. The reading points out the significant role of parents, schools and teachers in adolescence education. For school, it is necessary to arrange appropriate curriculum fit with students’ physical development, adjust school time to assure students have enough sleeping, design physiology courses in each grade to help students build positive and scientific attitude to their changing. As educators, teachers not only need to understand these changes but also give students appropriate supports and instructions. This sensitive period requires teachers to be more thoughtful and sympathetic. At the same time, teachers need to seize this special time to develop their cognitive potentials.