Understanding Your Child's Temperament and Personality
As individuals we all have our own temperament and personality but what
many parents do not appreciate is that we are born with the former and
that the later develops over time and is influenced considerably by our
environment.
A child's temperament will include such things as his level of activity,
how adaptable he is, how easily distracted he is and how sensitive he
is.
For many parents a child's temperament becomes a source of frustration
since the child is born with this and, despite the parent's best
efforts, it cannot be changed to any substantial degree. If your child
is naturally sensitive then you are not going to have much success in
changing that, whatever you do.
The real problem for many parents is that they fail to see the advantage
in the fact that a child's temperament is largely set at birth. Raising
a child is immensely complex at the best of times, but having a fixed
base from which to work has tremendous advantages and the secret is not
to try to change your child's temperament but to work with it.
The fact that you know that your child is exceptionally active, is not
easily distracted or demonstrates a particularly high level of emotional
expression gives you an excellent basis for understanding your child and
for devising a strategy which works with your child's temperament to
help him to develop and to reach his full potential.
Personality by contrast is a whole different ball game and is a far more
complex and less well understood area than temperament. Experts disagree
widely about just what shapes a person's personality and the degree to
which various factors influence the development of personality.