Teen Brains Wired To Tune Out Mother's Voice More Than Younger Kids, Study Says
BOSTON (CBS) -- Ever wonder why your loving and affectionate child all of a sudden tunes you out as soon as they hit their teen years?
Well, new research is shedding some light and I'm sure a lot of parents will want to "tune" in.
As a mother of three teens, I know full well how frustrating it is to ask them to take the trash out or remind them to brush their teeth and put their retainers in and be completely ignored. I'm often raising my voice and repeating over and over, "You're not listening to me."
Stanford researchers studied the brain scans of children and found that it's at around age 13 that kids' brains aren't registering your voice the way they did when they were younger. In fact, their brains shift from focusing on their mothers' voices to focusing on new and unfamiliar ones…a rewiring to prepare them to separate from their parents.
Babies and young children are programmed to tune in to their mothers' voices for social, emotional, and language cues, but in order for an adolescent to mature and prepare to leave the nest, they need to be able to engage with the world around them and be socially adept outside of their homes.
