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Each and
every child comes with his own personality and temperament.
Understanding this is a must for parents so that you
can find the parenting style that is most appropriate
in guiding your child towards his full potential.
All of
us individuals have our own personalities and temperament.
But what a lot of people do not really know is that
we are actually born with our temperament while our
personalities develop over time. Moreover, our immediate
environment actually has a stronghold on the way our
personalities develop. By understanding this fact
of life, it will be better for you to guide your child
towards realizing his full potential.
In its
most basic form, the temperament of a child will actually
include certain things, which include his ability
to adapt to things and situations in his environment,
his level of activity, his attention span and tendency
to get distracted, and his sensitivity towards things
and situations in his environment. A lot of parents
have difficulty dealing with their children's temperament
because, as mentioned above, this is already innate.
Thus, dealing with this can be quite frustrating on
the part of parents. In fact, even with the best efforts
exerted by parents, it can still be difficult to change
the temperament of children to the smallest degree.
For instance, if your child is very sensitive, to
the point that jokes can be hurtful for him, then
this is something that can't be changed no matter
what you try to do. As a parent, the best that you
can do is explain the situation to him.
The main
key here is to accept early on that changing your
child's temperament is close to impossible. This way,
you can start thinking of methods on how you can work
around it. Just like in the scenario mentioned above.
Knowing and accepting early on that your child can
be too sensitive to certain situations can bring a
lot of advantages for you. Once you have accepted
this as a fact, then you can start working both around
and with it. You can devise strategies that work well
with your child's sensitivity so that his full potential
can still be reached.
Personality,
on the other hand, is completely different from temperament
and is more complicated as well. Of the two, a lot
of experts agree that it is actually personality that
is more difficult to understand. The agreement stops
there though because experts disagree about the factors
that shape the personality of a person. Are you familiar
with the concept of nature versus nurture? A lot of
experts say that a child's personality is still inherited
from his parents, with his genetic makeup dictating
the formation and development of the personality itself.
However, you cannot disregard the fact that the child's
environment can also affect the development of his
personality. To what degree, well, this still remains
under speculation as well. Thus, the best conclusion
one can come up with is that during a child's birth,
the foundations of his personality and its development
just might be present. Environmental factors would
also have their fair share of influence on this development.
The underlying
concept here is to go beyond recognizing your child's
personality. You should understand that his personality
is not fully developed yet so the traits that can
be modified within reason can still be modified, as
long as the proper approach is undertaken.
For instance,
you might notice that your child is a bit too outspoken
and assertive at times. This is a trait that can get
him in trouble so as parents, it then becomes your
role to explain the pros and cons of being outspoken
and assertive. This way, your child will learn to
act appropriately as the situation demands, and his
full potential can be realized in time.
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Speech & Language Development
