Teaching Strategies
	Unlike the prototypical adult parent, adolescent parents have special needs. For instance, when compared to adult mothers, adolescent mothers tend to lack the financial resources, social support, and child development knowledge necessary to be effective parents. Also, adolescents are in a unique stage of human development where they are struggling with questions of identity, adolescent egocentrism, a need for autonomy or more independence from the family, and the transition from concrete to formal operational thought. The ability to successfully resolve these developmental tasks is what prepares adolescents for the challenging tasks of adulthood, such as parenthood. However, adolescent parents must engage in the tasks of adulthood and adolescence simultaneously. This developmental mismatch, along with the other unique needs of adolescent parents, can make it very difficult for adolescents to parent effectively. In order to support adolescents in their ability to parent, parenting programs for adolescent parents must address these special needs. Specifically, the needs should be reflected in all program components - structure, content, delivery, etc. Program delivery, in particular, is addressed in the following list, which contains suggested teaching strategies to use when working with adolescent parents. By using the following strategies, parent educators should be more effective in meeting their program goals. Potential Teaching Strategies: Experiential/participatory activities (e.g., role playing, small group interaction, story telling, other creative approaches) Choosing curriculum to match the needs of a developmentally diverse teen population (e.g. projects for 17 year olds need to be adapted to 13 year olds and projects for 13 year olds may not be appropriate for 17 year olds) Allowing time for each adolescent to share his or her ideas, feelings, issues, etc. Journal writing Individual/large group interactions Home study Communicating by telephone Using videos Taking tours Observing parent-child interactions Bringing in visitors to class Using issues relevant to adolescents (e.g., peer or family relationships), to work through the steps of problem solving and decision making with the adolescents Assess the adolescent's level of cognition (e.g., can he/she process abstract information yet?) and base instruction and information on the adolescent's current cognitive abilities Use vignettes/biographical scripts with fictitious situations or characters to provide a concrete manner of presenting complex issues related to personal or family issues Avoid overly rigid curricula; adolescents will be bored with it Broaden the adolescent's social and work experiences by having individuals with various occupations visit the class Link the adolescent's personal experiences with theoretical child development information delivered in class When discussing child development, allow each adolescent to play "child development expert" for the day by having her present observations and describe the behavior of her child based on the particular area of development being discussed Hold discussions with the adolescents about their own childhood experiences and how their needs were dealt with by their own families Hold class discussions with the adolescent mothers about individual variations and the unique self-expressions of children Use the classroom as a setting to discuss varying viewpoints and to clarify myths and misinformation about child rearing and development communicated to adolescents through family members, peers, community, media, etc. Have the adolescents define what they see as the "perfect woman" or "perfect mother," asking them for their ideals or fantasies about qualities they most admire or dislike in these roles Use triadic role plays (e.g., adolescent parent, adolescent's mother, and child) and intergenerational class discussions that focus on how the adolescent mother and her own mother are coping with child management issues Engage in class discussions or activities that encourage the adolescent mothers to assess their own skills and self-understandings with how they believe others in their immediate context see them, how they wish to be seen, and how they may achieve these goals References Abell, E., & Ludwig, K. (1997). Developmental considerations in designing parenting education for adolescent parents. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 10, 1-5. Catrone, C., & Sadler, L. S. (1984). A developmental model for teen-age parent education. Journal of School Health, 54, 63-67. Causby, V., Nixon, C., & Bright, J. (1991). Influences on adolescent mother-infant interactions. Adolescence, 26, 619-630. Levenson, P., Atkinson, B., Hale, J., & Hollier, M. (1978). Adolescent parent education: A maturational model. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 9, 104-118. Parks, P. L., & Arndt, E. K. (1990). Differences between adolescent and adult mothers of infants. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 11, 248-253. Reis, J. (1988). A comparison of young teenage, old teenage, and adult mothers on determinants of parenting. The Journal of Psychology, 123, 141-151. Roosa, M. W., & Vaughan, L. (1984). A comparison of teenage and older mothers with preschool age children. Family Relations, 33, 259-265. Sadler, L. S., & Catrone, C. (1983). The adolescent parent: A dual developmental crisis. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 4, 100-105. Santrock, J. W. (1993). Adolescence: An introduction (5th ed.). Wisconsin: Brown and Benchmark Publishers. Showers, J. (1991). Child behavior management cards: Prevention tools for teens. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15, 313-316. Young, M. (1988). Parenting during mid-adolescence: A review of developmental theories and parenting behaviors. Maternal-Child Nursing Journal, 17, 1-12.