Understanding Temperament: Strategies for Creating Family Harmony

The premise here makes sense: since parents can't really change their child's temperament, why not work with--and around--it? Shick, a counselor at the Center for Human Development in La Grande, Ore., has helped design a temperament-based parenting program. Shick describes various temperaments based on a combination of 10 traits (activity, emotional sensitivity and sensory awareness, among others). She explains how contrasts in a parent's and a child's temperament can create clashes and outlines strategies that can be used to avoid and alleviate such problems. Shick argues that punishing temperament-based behavior is fruitless and guides parents toward other methods (e.g., providing calming activities for high-activity children or keeping transitions to a minimum for slow-adapting children). Noting that the needs of easygoing children are often ignored, she encourages parents to consider how temperament affects the ""easy"" child, as well as the more challenging kids. Shick's presentation is regrettably stiff and short on illustrative anecdotes. More problematically, this sclerotic delivery runs the risk of making a rigid, potentially ham-fisted system out of convincing and common-sense approach to parenting. (June)