Understanding Temperaments
Resources: Websites, Tools & Books
Websites
Tools
- I Found Out Something About Myself Today. Children strive throughout childhood and adolescence to develop a strong sense of self. It starts with the discover in infancy that they are separate from their parents and, moving into their second year, that they can disagree with them! Children who have a strong sense of who they are, what they believe, what values they hold are less vulnerable to peer pressure and have less of a need to rebel in adolescence. Demonstrate your respect for your child's process of self-discovery by offering this tool.
HINT: If your child is curious, it can be fun to look at what you've learned about him, using the PARENTING COMPASS, next to his conclusions about himself. Just listen and share. Don't be insistent about your point of view. If he says he likes red and you think he prefers purple, that's okay! What is important is to communicate your enjoyment of his process of self-discovery.
Bookshelf
These books provide a positive approach to parenting using temperament theory. By learning more about temperaments, you’ll be able to understand yourself and your children, and embrace the differences.
| Books on Temperament - Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles: Winning for a Lifetime, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.
Mary Sheedy Kurcinka is an internationally known author and family educator. In this book, she discusses seven temperamental traits and helps parents to determine their child(ren)’s temperaments. Beyond that, she gives strategies on how to act as an emotional coach for the children. Kurcinka also helps parents to determine their own [not sure what this means] temperamental traits. This understanding helps them to coach children.
- Understanding Your Child's Temperament, William B. Carey M.D.
William B. Carey, MD, a pediatrician with 30 years of experience, is director of Behavioral Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The nine temperamental traits are discussed in this book, along with the positive and challenging attributes associated with them. It examines how children respond to stress and how they function in other environments based on their temperaments.
- Temperament Talk: A Guide to Understanding Your Child, Goodman, Tyler, Shick, Zukin.
The authors of this book are temperament specialists at The Center for Human Development in LaGrange, OR. Their positive approach helps parents understand and honor their childrens’ temperaments. The book includes case studies and examples.
- Temperament Tools: Working With Your Child's Inborn Traits, Helen Neville, Diane Clark Johnson.
Neville and Johnson are parenting educators in Oakland, California. As in the books above, they identify the nine temperamental traits. In this book, the primary focus is the goodness of fit between parent and child. |
| Books Related to Specific Temperaments
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