Professional Development
Workshops/How To Work With Families » Foster Parent Training - Options For Youth
Take a Good Look at Your Child's Temperament
Job and Family Services - Foster Family Training
The ABC’s of Positive Parenting for Foster Parents
(Take a Good Look)
As parents, each of us has success stories to tell about the children to who we open our homes. Foster care is a positive and progressive step forward for many children! Unfortunately, there are also plenty of problems that face our children and ourselves. One effective way to accentuate the successes and decrease the number of problems is to build a helping relationship with our children based on understanding child development, child behavior, and how each child’s temperament and personality affect her growth and development.
Individual differences in personality play major roles in how parents and children get along with each other, and how families learn to adapt and cope with life situations. It is significant that babies who are less demanding are often viewed by parents as “good” or “easy”, as a result, receive less attention and positive nurturing than the difficult infant, whose personality is more assertive, energetic, and demanding.
Parents, who take the time to analyze the temperamental characteristics of their own and their foster children, can avoid many pitfalls in parenting. Here are some questions to ask yourself about each personality in your household. Then, consider aspects of temperament when planning your daily routines and tasks.
What is the activity or energy level of each person? High-energy people are good motivators for couch potatoes, and even very young energetic types are easy to praise and reward for being busy and helping.
How rhythmic is each person, in terms of his eating, sleeping, toileting, or personal habits? Very regular people are upset easily by chaotic changes in routine and the order of a household.
How adaptable are your family members when confronting situations for the first time? Children who have low adaptability thresholds need plenty of warning and advance notice before embarking on new experiences.
How intense and forceful is each person, regardless of age, when it comes to reactions. For example, some of us cry furiously when we are upset, while others are quiet and self-contained about showing their reactions. You can guess which personality type gets the most attention.
How much interaction or stimulation does each person in the family need for another person to get a response? Some teenagers have trigger-fast responses, shooting from the hip and voicing their objections about everything, as loudly as possible. Others appear to not hear, not see, and not care about anything!
How attentive or how distractible are family members? Parents can cut down on a lot of bad behavior by assessing “attention spans”, and shortening up verbal directions, giving fewer orders and lectures, and making fewer rules to remember. Give plenty of reminders, and praise children for remembering and doing things correctly. Not everyone has the memory of an elephant, nor do most people listen very well. We have effectively taught our children to look and watch, but not to hear and listen.
When parents know the specifics of personalities, they can arrange ways to let their children use the best parts of their personality to please others. High-energy children love to make things. Toddlers with short attention spans can do quick things that help out, like putting socks in a basket. Moody distractible older children can read joke books to younger children, or help children do exercised or play outside. So enjoy the inevitable wide variety of personalities who reside under your roof!
TEMPERAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
Nine categories of reactivity derived from content of parental interviews. A three-point scale is used for each category: High, Intermediate, and Low.
ACTIVITY LEVEL – describes the level, tempo and frequency with which a motor component is present in the child’s functioning.
RHYTHMICITY – describes the regularity of repetitive biological functions.
APPROACH FOR WITHDRAWAL – describes the child’s first reaction to any new object or event.
ADAPTABILITY – ease or difficulty with which a child’s first reaction to a new object or event can be modified in a direction desired by others. This category focuses on a sequence of responses rather than on a first response.
INTENSITY OF REACTION – describes forcefulness of response, regardless of direction (positive or negative).
THRESHOLD OF RESPONSIVENESS – descries level of stimulation needed to call forth an observable response (“muchness”).
QUALITY OF MOOD – describes the amount of pleasant, out-reaching behavior as compared to unpleasant, unfriendly behavior.
DISTRACTIBILITY – describes the effectiveness of external events in changing the pattern of on-going behavior.
ATTENTION SPAN AND PERSISTENCE – length of time child continues with an activity and his ability to continue an activity in spite of obstacles (two related abilities
TEMPERAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
Nine categories of reactivity derived from content of parental interviews. A three level scale is used for each category.
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High |
Intermediate |
Low |
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ACTIVITY LEVEL - describes the level tempo and frequency with which a motor component is present in the child's functioning.
High - "hard to change because of squirming...."
"grabs the spoon when I feed her"
Low - "He hardly moves from where I put him down at night to when I pick him up in the morning."
RHYTHMICITY - describes the regularity of repetitive biological functions.
High - "sleeps, eats and wake at the same time everyday"
Low - "never know when he'll be hungry"
APPROACH OR WITHDRAWAL - describes the child's first reaction to any new object or event.
High Approach - Low Withdrawal -- "always reaches out to strangers, loves new foods"
Low Approach - High Withdrawal -- "cries when anybody new picks hi up, spits out any
strange food"
ADAPTABILITY - ease or difficulty with which a child's first reaction to a new object or event can be modified in a direction desired by others. This category focuses on a sequence of responses rather than on a first response.
High - "hated the bath at first, now loves to play in the tub"
- "would scream when put in the high chair, now smiles and laughs when placed there"
Low - "cries for an hour or more every time I leave her with a sitter"
- "won't go to sleep without rocking for an hour or more"
INTENSITY OF REACTION - describes forcefulness of response, regardless of direction (positive or negative)
High - "jumps up and down whenever he hears music"
- "cries whenever he is very hungry and won't be distracted"
Low - "he's quiet even when the room is very noisy"
- "when toys are taken from him, he turns to something else for play"
THRESHOLD OF RESPONSIVENESS - describes level of stimulation needed to call forth an observable response (muchness).
High - "doesn't startle when he hears a sudden loud noise"
Low - "cries as soon as he is wet"
QUALITY OF MOOD - describes the amount of pleasant, out-reaching behavior as compared to unpleasant, unfriendly
behavior.
High Pleasant - Low Unpleasant -- "if he's not smiling and babbling, I know he's sick"
Low Pleasant - High Unpleasant -- "cries for a half hour every night before he falls asleep"
DISTRACTIBILITY - describes the effectiveness of external events in changing the pattern of on-going behavior.
High - "changes his activity as soon as a new plaything is given to him"
- "if hungry, you can give a new toy and he forgets his discomfort"
Low - "when hungry, cries until he eats"
- "if playing with one toy, refuses to give it up for another"
ATTENTION SPAN AND PERSISTENCE - length of time child continues with an activity and his ability to continue an activity in spite of obstacles (two related abilities).
High attention and persistence -- "tries to stand up for a half-hour or more in spite of repeated falls"
Low attention and persistence -- "if he doesn't know how to work a toy, immediately gives it up for another"
SOURCE: Thomas, Chess, & Birch (1968). Temperament and behavior disorders in children. pp. 19-27. New York U
