Reality Check Mentoring: Age Focus

Ages 10-13

Children ages 10-13 will need:

Reassurance and acceptance are especially important at this time, as is growth in school and community activities
Strong support will help them develop the confidence they need to make healthy choices
Many are strongly influenced by friends

Children ages 14-17 will need to:

Attain cognitive maturity—the ability to make decisions based on knowledge of options and their consequences
Continue to be influenced by peers (The power of peer pressure lessens after early adolescence)
Build skills to become self-sufficient
Have the capacity to develop long-lasting, mutual, and healthy relationships, if they have the foundations for this development—trust, positive past experiences, and an understanding of love
Understand their own feelings and have the ability to analyze why they feel a certain way