We Prepare for Pu Issue 18/08/2011 Revision Date 10/06/2015 Form No. ECT/ACA/F05
ID: 3457220 • Letter: W
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We Prepare for Pu Issue 18/08/2011 Revision Date 10/06/2015 Form No. ECT/ACA/F05.03 Assignment Instructions: Assignments should be submitted on or before the due date. Zero mark will be awarded to answers that are copied and submitted late. Assignments are to be typed and handed over on or before the due date. You are also required to submit the assignment on the moodle Due Date: 20/4/2018 1. Explain what kind of temperament you had as an infant How did it affect your relationship with your parents or caregivers? This assignment has to be written in your own words in approximately 1 page.Explanation / Answer
A child’s temperament describes the way in which she approaches and reacts to the world. It is her personal “style.” Temperament influences a child’s behavior and the way she interacts with others. While temperament does not clearly define or predict behavior, understanding a child’s temperament can help providers and families better understand how young children react and relate to the world around them.
Two theorists, Thomas and Chess, extensively researched child temperament in the late 1970s. According to their theory, each infant is different and unique in how they react to their environment, and this pattern of reacting is innate, unlearned, and present from birth. As well, every parent is unique in his or her own personality. Often, the goodness of fit, or compatibility, between babies' temperaments and caregivers' own personalities will affect the quality of child-caregiver relationships. According to Thomas and Chess, there are three general types of temperaments in children: easy, slow-to-warm, and difficult. Easy children are generally happy, active children from birth and adjust easily to new situations and environments. Slow-to-warm children are generally mellow, less active babies from birth, and can have some difficulty adjusting to new situations. Difficult children have irregular habits and biological routines (e.g., eating, sleeping), have difficulty adjusting to new situations, and often express negative moods very intensely. As the category name suggests, these children are the most difficult for caregivers to satisfy and to maintain the energy and joy to care for on a daily basis.
Thomas and Chess identified nine dimensions or qualities that help indicate temperament, including: activity level, rhythmicity, distractibility, approach or withdrawal, adaptability, attention span and persistence, intensity of reaction, threshold of responsiveness, and quality of mood. By looking at these dimensions, caregivers can not only determine what their babies' temperaments are like, but they can also identify ways of interacting and dealing with certain aspects of their temperament in order to foster a nurturing environment for that child and even prevent many complications before they arise.
Not all children’s temperaments fall neatly into one of the three types described. Roughly 65% of children can be categorized into one of the three temperamental types: 40% are easy or flexible, 10% are active or feisty, and 15% can be categorized as slow to warm or cautious. Second, all temperamental traits, like personality traits, range in intensity. Children who have the same temperament type might react quite differently in similar situations, or throughout different stages in their development. For example, consider the reactions of two infants when a stranger comes into the room. A cautious infant might look for her caregiver and relax when she makes eye contact, while another baby with an easy temperament may smile or show little reaction to the stranger.
The temperament mix between parents and children also affects family life. For example, a slow-paced parent may be irritated by a highly active child; or if both parent and child are highly active and intense, conflict could result. Parents may also notice that situational factors cause a child's temperament to seem problematic; for example, a child with low rhythmicity can cause difficulties for a family with a highly scheduled life, and a child with a high activity level may be difficult to cope with if the family lives in a crowded apartment upstairs from sensitive neighbors. Understanding a child’s temperament can help reframe how parents interpret children’s behavior and the way parents think about the reasons for behaviors. By parents having access to this knowledge now helps them to guide their child in ways that respect the child’s individual differences. By understanding children’s temperaments and our own helps adults to work with them rather than try to change them. It is an opportunity to anticipate and understand a child’s reaction. Parents can encourage new behaviors in their children, and with enough support a slow-to-warm-up child can become less shy, or a difficult baby can become easier to handle.
Finally, it is important to understand that although a child’s basic temperament does not change over time, the intensity of temperamental traits can be affected by a family’s cultural values and parenting styles. For example, a family that values persistence (the ability to stick to a task and keep trying) may be more likely to praise and reward a child for “sticking with” a challenging task (such as a puzzle). Parental recognition of the child’s persistent efforts can strengthen the trait, and she may become more persistent and more able to focus over the course of his childhood.
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