Aside from all the physical changes, adolescents are developing skills that help prepare them for adulthood. Part of this means participating more in their own health care. The adolescent well-child visits are tailored to support your family in this process.

Although pediatricians lend their own style to their examinations, many start the adolescent office visit with you and your child together.

The doctor asks the typical questions, such as the past year's medical history and any past and current problems, or any medicines or complementary alternative medications being used. The pediatrician will ask about your teen’s eating, sleeping and exercise habits, and how things are going with school, family and relationships with friends.

This part of the visit is directed primarily to the parent, though the teenager is always able to chime in as needed. Before the physical examination, the doctor will ask the parent to allow some time alone with the adolescent.

Parents and adolescents need to understand the reasons behind this routine. The pediatrician builds a relationship with you and your budding adolescent—sometimes over the entire course of their lifetime, sometimes over a shorter period. No matter the amount of time, all patient-doctor relationships are built on mutual trust and respect.

The goals of pediatric care include guiding and protecting the health and well-being of your adolescent. But it also includes preparing them to more actively care for their own health. In this way, we bridge this gap together and pave the way for your adolescent to confidently join and navigate the adult health care world.

In many families, the biggest challenge for parents of adolescents is not how much more they can do for their kids, but how they can effectively do less. Parents should know that they can allow their adolescents to try, to fail, to learn and to grow. We need to teach and prepare adolescents for the independence and responsibilities that lie ahead in both the health care arena and life in general.

Parents and pediatricians can partner in this effort to support kids on their path to adulthood. Still, it's a big step. Understandably, as a parent, you may have some questions. One question that parents often ask when told that the doctor needs to spend some of the time alone with their adolescent is: Is it that time already?

The answer is…not really. The goal, however, is to begin to forge a more adultlike relationship with your child before adolescence is in full swing.

With most families, the doctor-patient relationship has focused primarily on the parent and pediatrician. And certainly, through the early years, this was completely appropriate. But when you consider that one goal of parenthood is to prepare children to grow independent, teens need to begin to embrace and accept responsibility for their own health care. One reason for starting this transition a little early is to foster that sense of confidence in taking charge of their own health.

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