In recent years, research has shown how critical the first five years of a child’s life are because of the major brain development that occurs. What hasn’t been given as much attention is the importance of the last 5 percent of the brain’s development. This occurs in adolescence and is critical.

Researchers have found that this phase of brain development is crucial to things like intelligence, consciousness, and self-awareness. Emotional control, impulse restraint, and rational decision-making are all part of the brain’s development that takes place in adolescence. This is good and bad news.

As your child does positive things such as music, school achievement, responsibility, and social consciousness, they can be hard-wired into his expanding brain. The other good news is that there is still time to change for the better.

The bad news is that if you have a child who is into negative things such as anger, rage, and alienation, that negative behavior may be hard-wired during this time. This behavior can straighten out in time if we adults respond not with raging, hurtful punishments but with carefully crafted responses that will help your brain challenged child become a well-functioning adult.

Michael Bradley is the author of “Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Loving for Kid Without Losing Your Mind.” He offers suggestions of ways you, as a parent, can change your behavior to help your teen change his. Dr. Bradley is joined by multiple other authors such as Sal Severe (“How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too!”), Matthew McKay (“When Anger Hurts Your Kids” and Peter A. and Maggie Levine (“Trauma-Proofing Your Kids”). The topic of difficulties raising children is a popular one if you are looking to read more about this subject.

As a parent, you need to be aware that this is a time of remarkable change for your teen. It isn’t a time to pull away; it is a time to change how you react to him. It isn’t a time to accept that your teen is an adult; he isn’t. You are still the major influence in his life. He wants you there and on his side.

“Parenting an adolescent in today’s world is much the same as flying a jet aircraft or performing brain surgery,” Bradley says. Some therapists today will only treat adolescents if the parents are involved. They say that parents are ultimately the real therapists with their kids. Therapists also feel that parents need to understand and control their own behavior as it impacts their children so strongly.

“Parents are the most influential people in the lives of their children and are constantly teaching them how to interact and solve problems with others,” noted G. McKay and S. Maybell in “Calming the Family Storm.”

You have a very important job. It isn’t easy. Read about it, talk about it, try lots of different things but always remember that it is an important responsibility that has not ended in adolescence.

Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and former executive director of Parenting Matters Foundation, which published newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents.