Ashlyn Hickey FCS 101 01 9 20 19 Assigment 2 Temperament 1 Define temperament Discuss define the 3 most common types of temperament Temperament is a stable way of reacting and adapting to the world that is present early in life The three most common types of temperament are easy difficult and slow to warm up The easy child has regular sleep and feeding schedules approaches new situations such as new food or a new school with enthusiasm and adapts to them easily and is generally cheerful The difficult child has irregular sleep and feeding schedules is slow to accept new people and situations takes a long time to adjust to new routines and responds to frustrations with tantrums and crying The slow to warm up child falls between the other two Difficult children in general are at greater risk for developing psychological disorders and adjustment problems later in life A difficult temperament correlated with parental reports of behavioral problems from ages 3 to 12 and teachers reports of problems with attention span and aggression Rathus 2016 2 Describe the NYLS and its purpose or goal NYLS is abbreviated for New York Longitudinal Study Temperament defined here refers to individual differences in behavioral style The study was done by the work of Thomas and Chess and colleagues in the New York Longitudinal Study which began in the 1950s Shannon 2019 The NYLS temperament characteristics are assessed by looking at the behavioral style in the areas of a person s life environment When they analyzed their data the nine characteristics that were identified by the team as being reliably scorable on a three point scale were the level and extent of motor activity the rhythmicity or degree of regularity of functions such as eating elimination and the cycle of sleeping and wakefulness the response to a new object or person in terms of whether the child accepts the new experience or withdraws from it the adaptability of behavior to changes in the environment the threshold or sensitivity to stimuli the intensity or energy level of responses the child s general mood or disposition whether cheerful or given to crying pleasant or cranky friendly or unfriendly the degree of the child s distractibility from what he is doing and the span of the child s attention and his persistence in an activity Thomas 2019 3 Why is child temperament important to parenting Give at least 2 examples or reasons Discuss goodness of fit Temperament is important in parenting because methods and techniques must be compatible with their personalities Parents need to know the proper parenting techniques and how to discipline and how it affects the parent s view of the child and themselves as parents Both of these dimensions are critical in determining how the parent child relationship evolves over time Goodness of fit is simply defined as the compatibility between environment and a child s temperament Poorness of fit happens when temperament is not respected and accommodated Shannon 2019 4 How is temperament related to discipline Discipline is very important in growing up When I was a child I remember getting disciplined by my parents pretty often I was an ornery child My parents did believe it was okay to spank your child as long as it was hard I got my bottom spanked by my parents but it of course wasn t abuse related I never got bruises or anything from my parents because they did not hit hard The way to decide how to discipline the child should be based off of what temperament they have because they are all affected differently Children who are active or don t really care when they get disciplined usually need more focused and directive discipline in order for it to make a change Praise may be very effective with a child who is slow to warm as it may motivate him to try new activities A child who is slow to warm may also respond well to a reward system that provides further motivation and encouragement An active or difficult child may respond best to ignoring time out or loss of a privilege A token economy system may also be a good discipline tool to encourage good behaviors while maintaining a difficult child s attention Easy or flexible kids may do well with a variety of discipline strategies A combination of positive and negative consequences may be effective behavior management tools Morin 2018 5 How else other than parenting is knowledge about temperament and individuality useful I worked at a daycare for 5 years I absolutely loved my job and all of the kids The kids all had different personalities even the siblings I learned all the children s temperament very quickly It is easier to communicate with the children and care for them The children that had to have a routine we always made sure we were on the same schedule for them and changed as little as possible It was always good for me to know the temperament of the individual children We always wanted every child to be as happy and comfortable as possible The child that was slow to warm up needed a lot more motivation and encouragement when going to the bathroom or helping clean up We also had to give the child to warm up to us caregivers 6 How is temperament measured There are many different ways to tell the temperament on a child There are nine temperament traits to look at Activity level Sensitivity to changes regularity approach vs withdrawal adaptability mood intensity persistence and distractibility One way is to try an online test You can find temperament scales and you can measure the child s ability yourself to the best of your knowledge Unfortunately many parents tend to be biased when it comes to their own children which may make the test come back with inaccurate results You can also take your child to a counselor or a professional who has a lot of knowledge about child psychology They usually are able to measure your child s temperature and be able to tell you what personality they have Then you can raise them in a way that s easy for them to deal with Speak to a counselor today and get your child measured if you need help or need help on where to start Guilbeault 2018 Works Cited Shannon A 2019 Temperament Research Personality Studies Conferences Consotrium Retrieved from https www b di com research html Thomas A 2019 The New York Longitudinal StudyAlexander Thomas Stella Chess Herbert G Birchpersonality types temperament traits Retrieved from https www age of thesage org psychology chess thomas birch html Morin A 2018 January 28 How to Tailor Your