The social‐cognitive development of adolescents: Implications for the teaching of speech

Current research into the social‐cognitive development of adolescents can and should be applied to the teaching of speech. This essay outlines four major characteristics of adolescent social‐cognitive development: (1) the transition from concrete to formal operational thought, (2) adolescent egocentrism, (3) peer group identification, and (4) moral relativism and autonomy. These characteristics are shown to affect the adolescent's ability to understand communication concepts and to deal with the classroom audience and particular types of topics, assignments, or exercises. From this, implications are drawn concerning the intellectual and social structuring of the secondary curriculum in terms of the adolescent student.