The teenage brain with professor Sarah Jane Blakemore

Sarah Jane Blakemore wants you to be nicer to teenagers. Or rather, to show more understanding that they are not as adult as they may appear and that the behaviours they often adopt are sometimes out of their control. “One of the messages of my research, the papers we write and the books I have written, is that we should be more understanding of teenagers, of this really critical period of development,” she says.Blakemore is professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London and the author of books including the multi-award winning Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain. Speaking on the Tes Podagogy podcast, she explained that we often over-estimate what a teenager is capable of doing. She also discusses mental health, mindfulness, school starting ages, and sleep.