[LMB] Tagging Kids

[Nicholson, Sue]

        [Stats from 1991, comments from an old post]

Age Cohort              Injury Death Rate       % male
                          per 100,000

<1                      16.6                    53.7
1-4                     11.2                    60.1
5-9                      8.3                    58.4

         OK, an adult looking at this might think "Well, at least
they get better at avoiding risks, although males get better slower.
Things can only get better for the wee tykes."

         Then puberty begins to erode the human mind.

10-14                   11.4                    68.6

         Note that toddlers are better at assessing risk than young
adolescents and gosh, male adolescents are really bad at it.

         But it gets worse.

15-19                   49.7                    77.1

         At this point, accidental death accounts for almost
73% of deaths in that age group and once again, males are in the
slow class. Many of them may have lost their opposable thumbs at
this point and certainly the power of coherent speech as well.

---------
Me:
According to a presentation I went to at a University Health and Safety Conference, the rational part of the brain is being rewired in the teens and up to age 25,and a lot of thinking is essentially rerouted through the parts that deal with emotion.  In the context of University students risk assessments, this means that an intellectual understanding of risk has very little effect on behaviour.

I can't help wondering if there is a connection between the exposure to risk in earlier (more rational?) years and the ability to manage risk in late teens.  As Miles says at one point (Vor Game?) "Pain hurts, sir. I don't court it"  If a kid learns that pain hurts when young (and hopefully the consequences are more controlled), then he will have an emotional response to the possiblity which might be more effective in modifying behaviour in late teens.  Maybe. Another reason to mourn the loss of independence of children anyway.

Sue N