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.
