Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion College for Grown-Ups

There is actually some cognitive development that does occur between late adolescence and adulthood. The most significant development there happens in higher order cognitive skills such as metacognition and executive function.

Now, personally I have two minds about that subject, and neither hypothesis is actually anything like tested, so far as I am aware:

1. that executive function largely ONLY develops under 'load' and that this is why we are now effectively seeing cognitive development stretching into the 20's while physical development is going in the other direction, and

2. that UNTIL cognitive development is more or less complete, most human beings are not really well-prepared to learn at the highest level that their cognitive ability/potential would suggest.


Actually, that second point is one worth exploring a bit, because I have also seen evidence to suggest that students with the highest cognitive ability also tend to be the slowest to fully develop in terms of the basic neurodevelopmental arc.

Just to throw an alternative on the table.... My husband and I both went straight to university, into what we thought was our chosen majors for 1.5 - 2 years, and *then* took the year or so off to work, reflect, and ponder what we actually wanted to do with our lives. Both of us returned to new majors, and in my case, a new faculty. A year off working in a lab convinced me that I love science, but I utterly lacked the tenacity to be a chemistry major!

For both of us, this sequence worked very well. We had enough education to work in "real" jobs, and get a taste of our ostensibly-chosen professions. When we returned to school, we knew what we really wanted, and had the experience and maturity to get it.

P.S. Alas, I know far too many 40-year-old post-docs to suggest lengthy postponement to anyone who might have serious grad studies on their horizon.

Like aeh, though, I have two very distinct sets of opinions, and some of them contradict one another.

As Ivy astutely noted, though, one thing that we were very mindful of with our now-15yo college freshman is that people will mostly be holding her under a magnifying glass and LOOKING for examples of "immaturity" in ways that her 17-19yo peers are not being scrutinized. It's not really fair, but it is reality, and we hothoused the HECK out of her and placed things under LOAD (referencing my previous post) because we've seen how that "matures" adolescents.

If you expect them to manage, they tend to find ways. It's a better thing to do it while you can still guide and coach adaptive (and not maladaptive) measures for doing so, IMO.

This is definitely not an easy process, though-- and it's one that everyone on this board with a multiply accelerated child probably ought to bear in mind. There are ways to tweak that developmental arc (or to influence it using pharmacology), but they are not undertaken lightly, by any means.

It's the trade-off in early higher ed for our kids. We are taking away some of their years of "childhood" on the upper side of things.

DD15 is effectively operating as a 19yo now. In some ways that makes me sad, and in others proud.

I stand corrected then. However considering the age, historically, where people were considered functioning adults (able to marry, have children, run businesses, have careers, die in war) I'd agree strongly with your first point. Without pressure to mature, maturation does not occur. We probably all know of people who never had to mature into their 30s and beyond.

For our DD, the feedback from adults is mixed and somewhat contradictory. When she's in their class, they LOVE that she's mature. When she's not, they're equally happy to see her act her age (since it makes her appear more 'normal' and well-adjusted). She seems to be handling it pretty well so far and we sometimes put up with some additional immaturity outside of school because we know she needs a break.

Now executive function skills are a different matter. I'd say she's about 'at age' for these skills, which means we are scaffolding and pushing for her to ramp those up. Because she is going to need them.

Here's possibly a better contribution to the thread: It's from an ivy league school, and discusses executive function (an important skill for college readiness and success) -
NEW ACTIVITIES GUIDE, Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence

See especially figure 5:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855504/

Note that crystallized intelligence (Gc) continues to trend more-or-less upward for an additional decade. Gf is fluid intelligence.