Welcome
Welcome to the latest edition of YouthMoves, a news-sheet that gives ‘snatches’ of youth news, information and resources relevant to busy people relating to teens. In this issue we will look at listening to music while studying, questions that you can ask your year 12 student before they go to a party, the latest events and upcoming seminar. I hope this newsletter is of interest and help to you. If you would like to see the back issues of Youth Moves, log on to our website www.innovateonline.net. If I can assist your work with young people in any way (by offering counselling services, speaking/training or just answering a question about youth issues), please feel free to phone me on 8357 1711, or email kirriliesmout@innovateonline.net.
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Music - Good Motivator or Just a Distraction?
Most students listen to music while studying. With either ipod in ears, itunes through the computer or even “old fashioned” DVD player going, students across Australia tonight are listening to anything from Beyonce to Good Charlotte to LMFAO (don’t ask) while they do their homework. And inevitably parents in these houses walk past, wondering: “can they really concentrate with that going on in their ears?”
The truth is there are advantages and disadvantages to listening to music while studying.
Advantage number one is that most students say listening to music helps them study for longer. This makes sense: homework can be boring. If something can make it slightly less boring, students are slightly more likely to keep doing it for longer.
Advantage number two: listening to music has been found to be LESS distracting than listening to random office/household noise. So if the noise of the house is high, then having music to block that out can help students concentrate.
Advantage number 3: music puts students in a good mood. This is helpful because the better mood we are in, the longer we persist on hard tasks and the better we do at difficult tasks: good news for students.
So with all of that, what’s the problem with music? The other side of the record (a pun for those over 35) is that research consistently shows that compared to silence, people are less able to do difficult tasks while listening to music.
Almost every study in this area shows that if you give people a problem solving task and then compare people who do it in silence compared to people doing in while listening to music, those working in silence do the task better and quicker than those listening to music. It seems that music interferes with our attention and cognitive skills. This is especially true for music with lyrics, music that is unpredictable and slightly bizarrely, it is also especially distracting for introverts compared to extroverts.
Given the advantages and disadvantages, here are the recommendations I give students about this issue:
• Listen to music when you feel like you really “have to” – when you are bored, in a bad mood or tempted to stop (or can’t start) homework.
• Listen to music if your house is really noisy and you can’t shut it out any other way.
BUT recognise that you will not be doing your absolutely best work when listening to music so try to:
• Turn the music off when you are doing something quite hard (eg revising for a test or trying to understand difficult concepts)
• Listen to music without lyrics if you can (eg classical, electronica), music that has a predictable beat/tune or music that is very familiar to you.
• Turn the music down a couple of notches compared to the volume you listen to it normally.
Almost all students listen to music at some point while studying but it is worth having a discussion with them about what works and what doesn’t.
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Question Ideas for a Year 12 Student Going to a Party Serving Alcohol
My experience is that the best conversations happen with teenagers when we ask them questions, in a curious and non-judgemental way, rather than try to give too much advice. In this respect, here are a few questions that might be a good starter for a conversation with a teenager about to go off to a party where you suspect there is alcohol.
1. Do your friends do anything in particular/avoid anything to make sure they stay safe while they are drinking?
2. What are the kinds of things you would do or not do to make sure everyone was safe at this/on the way home from this party?
3. What are the risks or the things that go wrong when teenagers drink?
4. Has anything surprised you about how teenagers use alcohol or the kinds of things that happen when people drink – stuff you weren’t really aware of when you were 14 for example?
5. What do you think the best thing parents and teachers can do to help teenagers stay safe?
6. Is there anything I can do to make sure you avoid any problems that come with being around people who drink?
7. Is there anything you are worried about regarding anything at the party tonight?
8. You know right, that if you are feeling like things are unsafe/dodgy in anyway, that you can call and I will pick you up at any time?
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