Understanding Temperament: Strategies for Creating Family Harmony - Softcover

Shick, Lyndall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1884734324 ISBN 13: 9781884734328

Publisher: Parenting Pr, 1997

Synopsis

Temperament isn’t good or bad; it’s just the way each of us is. Some of us are active, intense and distractible; others are adaptable and persistent. You can’t change temperament, but you can manage it. And that’s what "Understanding Temperament" helps you do: it explains why family members behave as they do and how you can change family conflict into family cooperation. Intended to help you understand family dynamics, this book is full of real-life examples that will help you:

• Understand your child’s unique inner strengths;
• Teach the specific skills your child needs to excel in the world;
• Break the cycle of negative behavior between parent and child;
• Nurture a close relationship with your child; and
• Prevent problems by creating a better “fit” between your child and his or her environment.

About this title

About the Author

Lyndall Shick, M.A. has worked with emotionally disturbed children, victims of domestic and sexual abuse, elderly people, and families with challenging children. As a counselor at the Center for Human Development in La Grande, Oregon, Ms. Shick has helped design a temperament-based parenting program now in use nationwide.

From the Back Cover

Are family conflicts driving you crazy? Do calm mornings and peaceful mealtimes seem impossible? Help is here! Understanding Temperament is your guide to developing family harmony. When you know why family members behave as they do, and how to manage their behavior, you can change family conflict into cooperation. This book helps you invest in your family's health and happiness by parenting with temperament in mind.

Reviews

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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Parenting Pr
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1884734324
• ISBN 13: 9781884734328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 123