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As important as it is to listen to individual students, there are other things teachers need to know about youth, in general. As a developmental psychologist, I believe that one important way to “know” students is to have knowledge of how they develop physically, cognitively, linguistically, socially, and emotionally.

For more than two decades, I've worked as a professor in Hunter College's School of Education where I teach courses in the developmental sciences to undergraduate and graduate students preparing to become teachers. I've learned that understanding how children and adolescents develop makes us better prepared to support their needs. By their needs, I don't exclusively mean their academic needs. Rather, I focus on developmental needs—needs that are typical of all students within a particular age range, such as during adolescence.

For example, all students need to be intellectually engaged, to feel competent, and to feel a sense of accomplishment. But for adolescents, there's also a critical need for self-understanding and the need to reflect on what makes them who they are. They need to better understand how their race and gender shape their sense of identity and the identity of groups in which they claim membership. And they need to better understand their personal beliefs and their values. All students also need the opportunity to express themselves creatively. For adolescents, this creative expression helps them to discover their talents and their voice and agency and it helps them to explore their thoughts and feelings in ways that enable them to exert control over their lives.

All students also need to engage with others in a supportive and nurturing environment. With adolescents, positive relationships with peers are especially critical to helping them to recognize their own emotions, how to recognize the emotions of others, and how to respond to others with empathy and care.

I remember looking back at one of my old elementary school class photos. What stood out to me was the range of heights. I was one of the taller students, so I was in the back row, but I wasn't the oldest student. In fact, I remember clearly that a few classmates on the shorter side were actually the oldest ones in the class. It seems perfectly reasonable for us to accept and even expect a wide range of physical development across students in the same grade, and to know that those physical characteristics are not fixed. But why is it less likely for us to expect the same variability regarding cognitive, social, or emotional development? Why is it that we often associate physical development with social and emotional development? I remember once being frustrated by the “lack of maturity” demonstrated by one of my middle school students, who happened to be the tallest student in my class, until I found out that he was my youngest student.

Scholars and policymakers within the fields of education and psychology have highlighted the need for educators to be knowledgeable about how children and adolescents develop.² For example, through their Developmentally Appropriate Practice framework, the National Association for the Education of Young Children suggests that knowing how children develop and learn, knowing the individual needs of children, and knowing their cultural backgrounds are critical to supporting their learning.³ A comprehensive report by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development published in 2007 states that “aspects of development—neural, cognitive, social, psychological, physical and ethical—have far-reaching effects on children's ability to learn.”⁴

Similarly, a 2010 report published by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education notes that “teacher knowledge of the social, emotional, and cognitive domains, coupled with the ability to effectively apply strategies based on developmental principles, translates to increased student engagement and improved learning outcomes.”⁵

Several studies have also found that teachers with knowledge of child and adolescent development are more likely to design and implement lessons that address not only the academic, but also the social and emotional needs of their students.⁶ As a result of these findings, two common teacher performance assessments—the Danielson Framework for Teaching (which is used to assess the performance of teachers) and the edTPA (which is used to assess the performance of students preparing to become teachers)—emphasize the need for teachers to demonstrate knowledge of their students’ strengths and learning needs.

While development is variable, it is not necessarily linear. For example, during childhood and adolescence, increases in age are associated with enhanced motor skills and more complex thinking. But during adolescence, we also see behaviors that might easily be interpreted as a reduction in complex thinking. Through his research, psychologist Dr. David Elkin found that while adolescents generally advance in cognitive complexity as they age, in certain instances, they may think in ways that are more typical of younger children than burgeoning adults.⁷ Think back to your own adolescence. Do you remember ever thinking that your life was terrible and that no one in the world could possibly understand what you were going through? Do you remember feeling like you couldn't leave your house because you had a pimple on your nose or because your hair wasn't just right and you thought everyone in the world would notice it? Dr. Elkin found that this type of thinking is typical for adolescents and reflects limitations in their cognitive development that constrain how they make sense of the world around them.

We can see these developmental stages in the writing of Youth Communication teens. Amber Perez, 18, faced a problem that would be very tough for anyone her age: living in a shelter. But as a teen, she still overestimated how other kids would respond. Though she acknowledged that “The shelter wasn't as bad as I thought it would be” because at least her family had a private room. Then she added, “Living in a shelter made me feel even more shy and withdrawn since I was ashamed of living there. Even if I did make friends, how could I tell them where I lived?”

When she started high school, she longed for friends. She writes:

The night before, I sat in my room with my mom and we talked for a while. “Maybe you should come out of your shell and talk to people. I know they'll like you. What's not to like about you?” my mom said. “What is there to like about me?” I thought to myself. “I'm not that pretty, I don't dress like everyone else, I don't have a lot of money, and I'm living in a shelter.”

I knew it would upset my mom to say these things out loud so I just said, “Yeah, you're right.” Even though my mom and I have a bond, I don't like telling her what's going on in my head. She gets too worried. It's already hard for me to open up, and her reactions only make things worse.

Amber did make a few friends, but she was ashamed to disclose that she lived in a shelter. Fortunately, she was assigned a school counselor who was sensitive to the fact that adolescents often feel like they are “the only one” and that life will never get better. Here, Amber describes how a skilled counselor helped her see her life in a larger frame:

After meeting with a few different counselors, I was assigned to Ms. Millie. She always has a smile on her face and every time she sees me she asks if I'm OK, and even when I say I'm fine she knows when I'm not telling the truth. We have a connection.

But even with Ms. Millie's counseling, I started feeling depressed. Besides living in a shelter and feeling ashamed about it, I was stressed by my constantly fighting siblings. I was messing up in school, disrespecting my teachers, and missing class. I told her I never knew life could be so complicated.

Ms. Millie helped me deal with it all. She'd often say: “I know you may feel alone right now but trust me, Amber, you're not. There are a lot of kids in this school who've been through what you're going through.” It felt good not being the only one. I felt a little less embarrassed. But I still refused to tell anyone where I was living.

She'd also say: “You want to be strong, Amber, for your family, but mostly for yourself. You deserve that. Create a distraction; get more involved. Sooner or later you'll be out of there.”

I took her advice and joined an all-girls club, called, “Her Story,” as well as youth court and youth service. I also figured the more clubs I was in, the more colleges would want me. And they did distract me, like she said.

In the beginning of my sophomore year I was still a little on the edge. But I kept my head up. “One day you're going to look back at all this and smile because you survived it,” my counselor told me. “Everything is going to work out, just keep holding on.”

I repeated those words to myself every day.

Ms. Millie helped me realize that living in a shelter is nothing to be ashamed of. I can now talk to my friends about my experience, and they don't judge me.

Ms. Millie helped me appreciate my strength. Sometimes I remind myself: Wow, I did this. I can get through anything. I brought my grades back up and made the honor roll, fought my shyness, made good friends, participated in a lot of clubs, and soon I'll be off to college. Three years ago, I never thought I'd have accomplished so much.

Amber's counselor supported her in a way that was developmentally and culturally responsive. She began by addressing her developmental need to feel emotionally supported by building a connection with her. She then provided Amber with specific support that addressed two aspects of her cognitive development: her belief that she was the only student living in a shelter and her fear that no one would be able to understand what that experience was like for her.