PERSONAL

DEVELOPMENT
The Challenges of Middle and
Late Adolescence Quarter 1
Module 4
• The scope of this module
permits it to be used in
many different learning
situations. The language
used recognizes the
diverse vocabulary level
of students. The lessons
are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the
course.
The module is divided into
three lessons, namely:

Lesson 1 -
Encouragement 101: The
Courage to Be Imperfect
Lesson 2 – The Power of
Personal Declarations

Lesson 3 – Being Happy

 THE POWER OF PERSONAL
DECLARATIONS by Dr. Emily De Carlo

So often we accept the declarations

that others have made concerning
our own lives, well-being or fate. It
is imperative that we recognize
that in order to achieve what we
want in life, we must not give our
power away to others by accepting
their declarations concerning our
affairs.
• When one decides that he or she will boldly
declare good fortune, wellness, joy, etc. relative
to his or her life, all of heaven will break loose!
Goodness and mercy shall surely follow. From
birth, we are often told what we are going to be.
Sometimes, this is a good thing, but suppose
you have been told time and time again that
"you will not amount to anything just like your
mother or father"? This is a dangerous
declaration because it sets into motion the
actualization of an unwanted occurrence
• . All of us want to amount to
something! In order to counteract
this and all of the negative
declarations with their destructive
potential, one must consciously
replace them with one's own
declarations. In so doing, you are now
in control of setting into action what
you really want to occur. You can
declare that goodness and mercy
 I declare:
that I am totally free of all addictions.

that I will survive any attempts of others to

control my life.

that I am free in my mind, body, and

emotions.

that I am free to set goals and reach them.

that I am a loving individual with the

capacity to give love.

that I am a child of God with all rights and

privileges thereof.
 that I will be a good example for others to
follow.

that I will help all that I can to reach their

goals.

that I will speak words of encouragement to

others.

that I will find the goodness in life and focus

on it.

that I will not succumb to the negative

influences of others.

that I will read the information

• These declarations are meant to
encourage you to take control of the
influences in your life. They are
suggestions as to what positive
things you can speak about your
own life instead of accepting
whatever has been said about you in
the past. You now have the authority
to plant the seeds of love,
encouragement and victory in your
garden, thereby crowding out the
weeds of negativity that may already
have taken root! Just as in a garden,
• Sometimes, the negative
comments and declarations of
others have taken such a
stronghold in our lives, that we
must persist until we see the
bough not only fall, but break into
pieces. Don't be discouraged if
you don't reach your goals
overnight. Just remember that
even a small stream of water will
crack concrete eventually!!
LESSON 1
Late-adolescence (15–18) = Acting More
Grown Up What do late teens think acting
“growing up” means?

• Both parent and adolescent agree on

the same objective for the young
person in late adolescence: to learn
to act more "grown up." Where they
differ, however, is the meaning they
attach to this objective. For parents it
means learning to taking on more
adult responsibilities. For the
teenager it means getting to take
more adult adventures that certify he
Late-adolescence (15–18) = Acting More
Grown Up What do late teens think acting
“growing up” means?

• For many young people, these activities serve as

rites of passage toward adulthood; and all entail
more risk. For example, there is driving, dating,
working for money, having more money to spend,
falling in love, getting served a drink, getting
drunk or high, going to a college party, staying out
all night. Because at least some of these objectives
are now on the teenager's mind, parents need to
state where they stand on these matters, and
inform the young person's choice about dangers,
precautions, and responsibilities. Most discipline
problems in late adolescence are "speed
violations" from wanting to grow up too fast. So the
parent's job is to act as a drag on this growth, to
• How fast does the teenager learn in
high school? The more your freshman
teenager (through physical maturity
looking older than her age, or through
acceleration based on academic,
athletic, or other ability) is thrown into
the company of juniors and seniors, the
steeper and swifter this learning curve
becomes. Therefore, as much as
possible, during freshman year in high
school, support social association with
same-age friends. At the same time, so
that he or she can get a social foothold,
• Encouragement is the key
ingredient for improving your
relationships with others. It is
the single most important skill
necessary for getting along
with others – so important that
the lack of it could be
considered the primary cause
of conflict and misbehavior.
• Encouragement enhances a feeling of belonging
which leads to greater social interest. Social
interest is the tendency for people to unite
themselves with other human beings and to
accomplish their tasks in cooperation with
others. The first step to becoming an
encouraging person is to learn to distinguish
encouragement from discouragement. As a rule,
ask yourself: Whatever I say or do, will it bring
me closer together or farther apart from this
person? We all have the power to be more
encouraging people.

• The choice, as always, is

yours.
LESSON 2
THE POWER OF PERSONAL DECLARATIONS
 I am me.
I am unique. There's not another
human being in the whole world like
me -- I have my very own
fingerprints and I have my very own
thoughts. I was not stamped out of
a mold like a Coca-Cola top to be
the duplicate of another.

I own all of me -- my body, and I

can do with it what I choose; my
mind, and all of its thoughts and
ideas; my feelings, whether joyful
or painful.
I own my ideals, my dreams, my
hopes, my fantasies, my fears.

I reserve the right to think and

feel differently from others and
will grant to others their right to
thoughts and feelings not
identical with my own.
 I own all my triumphs and
successes. I own also all my
failures and mistakes. I am the
cause of what I do and am
responsible for my own
behavior. I will permit myself to
be imperfect. When I make
mistakes or fail, I will know that
I am not the failure - - I am still
O.K. -- and I will discard some
parts of me that were unfitting
and will try new ways.
 I will laugh freely and loudly at
myself -- a healthy self-affirmation.

I will have fun living inside my skin.

I will remember that the door to

everybody's life needs this sigh:
Honor Thyself I have value and
worth.
I am me, and I am O.K.
CHALLENGES OF
ADOLESCENCE
 • Adolescence begins with the
first well-defined maturation
event called puberty.
Biologic Included in the biological
al challenges are the changes
that occur due to the
Challeng release of the sexual
es hormones that affect
emotions. Mood changes
can increase, which can
impact on relationships both
at home with parents and
siblings and socially or at
school.
 Piaget, in his theory of social
development believed that
adolescence is the time when
Cognitiv young people develop
e cognitively from “concrete
Challeng operations” to “formal
operations”. So they are able
es to deal with ideas, concepts
and abstract theories.
However, it takes time for
confidence to build with using
these newly acquired skills,
and they may make mistakes
in judgement. Learning
through success and failure is
 Adolescents are
egocentric, they can
Cognitiv become self conscious;
e thinking they are being
Challeng watched by others, and
at other times want to
es
behave as if they were
on a centre stage and
perform for a non
existent audience. For
example, acting like a
music idol, singing their
 Unfortunately, these
beliefs can lead
Cognitiv
them to believe that
e
no-one is capable of
Challeng
understanding them,
es
or know how they
are feeling. This
aspect could have
important
implications for
 Adolescents live in their
private world where they
Cognitiv may think they are
e invincible and cannot be
hurt. However, this could
Challeng also be because at their
es age, they have not had to
deal with many deaths
and the mortality of the
human spirit i s not a
reality yet. This is all a
part of the complex
process of becoming a
 The psychological
challenges that the
adolescent must cope with
Psychologi are moving from childhood
cal to adulthood. A new
Challenge person is emerging, where
s rules will change, maybe
more responsibilities will
be placed on him/her so
that a certain standard of
behaviour is now required
to be maintained.
Accountability is becoming
 As adolescents continue their
journey of self-discovery, they
continually have to adjust to
Psychologi new experiences as well as
the other changes happening
cal to them biologically and
Challenge socially. This can be both
s stressful and anxiety
provoking. It therefore is not
surprising that adolescents
can have a decreased
tolerance for change; hence it
becomes increasingly more
difficult for them to modulate
their behaviours which are
BEING HAPPY