Understanding Your Child's Temperament
The renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has once again produced a remarkably wise and useful reference for parents. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop is spot-on when he says in the foreword that the book "should revolutionize parenting for many readers." That is, especially for 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-centeredness, and irritability. Instead of merely advocating ways to discipline behavioral 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 behavior, author Dr. William B. Carey has found that temperament is about 50 percent genetic. So even ifyouwere 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 behavioral 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 Temperamentis certainly a sanity saver for exhausted parents.