Understanding Your Child's Temperament - Hardcover

The renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has once again produced a remarkably wise and useful reference for parents. Former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop is spot-on when he says in the foreward that the book "should revolutionise parenting for many readers." That is, especially those parents who are tired of euphemistically referring to their kid as a "spirited child" and find themselves frequently exhausted and embarrassed by their child's temper tantrums, insensitive remarks and general impatience, self-centredness and irritability. Instead of merely advocating ways to discipline behavioural problems, this book will help you fathom just where your child's inscrutable (but normal) outbursts are coming from--to prevent and better manage them in the future.

During his 30 years of research into childhood and adolescent behaviour, author Dr. William B. Carey has found that temperament is about 50 per cent genetic. So even if you were a little monster and have found your fruit hasn't fallen far from the tree, there's that whole other 50 percent that can be improved upon. He's also found that temperament can be separated into nine aspects: activity, adaptability, distractibility, initial reaction, intensity, mood, persistence and attention span, regularity and sensitivity.

Once Dr. Carey has walked you through the process of profiling your child's temperament according to these easy-to-comprehend factors (and the ways it affects you that you're probably unaware of), you'll learn specific techniques for managing your child's behavioural problems both at home and at school. He also offers tips for parenting siblings whose temperaments may be quite different from each other, helpful facts on temperament's relationship to learning disabilities and its influence on common physical problems such as sleep disorders, bed wetting, and obesity. With page after page of enlightening tips, Understanding Your Child's Temperament is certainly a sanity saver for exhausted parents. --Amazon.com

"This book ... should revolutionize parenting for many readers." —Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, from the Foreword From a Respected Pediatrician Comes This Liberating Approach to Parenting Dr. William B. Carey, director of Behavioral Pediatrics at the renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, brings important research to the public in this enlightening book. Unlike many approaches to parenting that view children in relation to just one particular trait or behavior, Understanding Your Child's Temperament offers a way to look at your child in his or her totality, as a combination of nine different kinds of behavioral styles. Temperament is an individual's unique way of reacting to people, things, and situations—at home, at school, and in the community. Anxious parents can breathe a sigh of relief: Dr. Carey makes it clear that a child's temperament is mostly inborn, and not something caused by "good" or "bad" parenting. And, reassuringly, he explains that while about 50 percent of a child's temperament is genetic, parents can learn to work with it to prevent and reduce problems. Using Dr. Carey's practical strategies, parents will learn how to:

• profile a child's temperament in relation to nine aspects: activity · adaptability · distractibility · initial reaction · intensity · mood · persistence and attention span · regularity · sensitivity
• see both the positive and negative sides of temperaments
• apply the most rewarding techniques for working with your child's inborn nature
• tailor parental discipline to each child's temperament, and more

Comprehensive and filled with Dr. Carey's warm and wise counsel, Understanding Your Child's Temperament belongs in every family's library and is sure to be consulted again and again. http://www.mgr.com