Personality Plus for Parents: Understanding What Makes Your Child Tick

by Florence Littauer

How can you improve your relationship with your children and more effectively parent them? Florence Littauer helps you identify, understand, and meet each child's unique needs.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Personal Development, Reference, Education

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2000

About the author

Florence Littauer is a Christian self-help author and public speaker. Littauer is best known for her series of books based upon the Personality Plus personality system. She was listed as one of Helen K. Hosier's "100 Christian Women Who Changed the Twentieth Century" and has received the National Speakers Association's Council of Peers Award for Excellence and has been designated by them as a Certified Speaking Professional.

--From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. Although I know that the author knows that there are endless blends of personalities that a person/child can have, I couldn't help but to cringe at the feel of the book - for me, it felt a bit too limiting as if children could be put into personality boxes. If someone were to ask me if I could recommend this book, I would tell them to just read the adult version of Personality Plus (a book that I did enjoy) and How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie so you can better understand how to accept, approve, and appreciate your child, encourage their accomplishments, and seek first to understand and love them where they are at.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some helpful advice here, especially about what encourages different types of people (what encourages my kids might not be what encourages me). Overall I found it pigeonholed people too much, saying "melancholics will NEVER ____" when I was thinking, "Uhhh, my melancholic child does that every day." If I were to use only this book as my guide, I think I'd actually end up limiting my children's interests and abilities based on what I read. (For example, my easily distractible, messy Sanguine HAS developed more of an ability to focus and remember directions over time, and it turns out she LOVES to help clean the house!--but this book insists Sanguines will never be good at it. How potentially discouraging!) This may be more a matter of the style the book was written in than the author's actual beliefs.

Throughout the book seemed to be making personality-based excuses for what seemed to be more heart/disobedience issues. "She can't help it; she's choleric!" does not serve anyone, including the child; it makes her a victim of her personality, unable to rise above its natural weaknesses. Again, if this were the only book I was going by, I would feel my family was "stuck."

[Kendra DeMartino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is awesome in better understanding your children’s personalities and even your own. I understand not everyone wants to be thrown in a box but the author did say many times there aren’t just 4 personalities but someone could have percentages of each personality . This helps us parent our children better when we can understand how they are wired and how God designed their little brains and hearts to work .

[Marla Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource

This book serves as a great resource for understanding how to speak to your child. It also brought insight into understanding your own personality traits that impact parenting style. Highly recommend this book to parents.

[Kari Ivanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чудесна книга! Кратка, без излишна информация, написана на лесен и разбираем език. След кратък въпросник ти помага да разбереш своят тип темперамент, а след това и този на детето си (спрямо качествата, които притежава и начинът по който се държи в съответната възраст). Показва ти какви трудности би имал при възпитаването му и какви грешки би допуснал, ако не разберете личностният му тип и защо се държи така. Описани са и много примери от практиката на авторката или нейни случки с цел още по лесното оприличаване със съответен личностен тип.

[Mohd Hafiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It certainly helps when you know your children's personalities. This book describes four common temperaments and how to deal with people that possess those personalities. Knowing your children's temperaments help you to understand them and help us to communicate with them better.

[Beth Cortez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was just ok. Didn’t really keep my attention and some of it wasn’t relevant. I don’t think I really took away much of anything from it, other than to accept my children as they are, and to play up their strengths, but I don’t need a book to tell me that.

[Jennifer Ruwisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a helpful book!
The key to getting along with people is understanding them. If you are struggling with challenging dynamics in your home, take the time to learn about personality colors and you will see your children (and spouse) with new eyes.

[Rebecca Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for ALL parents. This brought a lot of light to why each child is so different and how to deal with it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

This book is my go to for personalities, I’m more tolerant now with my children and I can encourage their strengths.

[Patrick Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to better understand yourself and your kids. Fun stories and excellent examples on parenting..

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful to understand myself and children and how and why we interact

[Kate Corbett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful paradigm with helpful advice. Despite being a Christian myself I found the random refrences to religion surprising and out of context.

While a useful mindset it makes no mention of how children who are not nuerotypical fit into these personality types. My children's nuerodivergents certainly impact or lay over these basic personality types. The author doesn't address that at all which misses a valuable opportunity.

[Jess A. Mielbick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read that helped me better understand my preschooler and myself. It changed the way I parent and has created less stress in our household. I plan to continue referencing this as needed and again when our baby is older.

[Nurudin Hanif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dalam buku versi Indonesia yang saya baca, judulnya Kepribadian Plus untuk Orang Tua, Memahami Mengapa Anak Anda Seperti Itu. Membaca buku ini sebenarnya mengulang kembali buku yang pernah saya baca yaitu Personality Plus, hanya saya ga ingat kapan dan dimana saya membacanya hehe...
Buku ini bagus, membantu kita memahami kepribadian kita sendiri dan orang-orang di sekitar kita. Dalam buku ini dijelaskan empat kepribadian: Sanguinis Populer, Koleris Kuat, Melankolis Sempurna dan Pleghmatis yang Damai. Masing-masing mempunyai kelebihan dan kekurangan, dan dalam buku ini terdapat cara bagaimana kita bisa bergaul dan memotivasi anak kita sesuai dengan kepribadian yang mereka miliki.
Selamat membaca..

@bpksulbarLibrary

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with fun and insightful stories of interactions between family members, so that the reader can better understand how to relate to people and have reasonable expectations of others.

The author says, "We don’t want cookie-cutter children who all say and do the same things. Instead, we want to see children free to function in their own unique version of their personality. By understanding their personalities, and hopefully our own too, we can more effectively parent them, give them an appreciation for who they are, and support them in the “way to go” they feel fits them best."

[Ruth Hinds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very helpful for parents! It helps to explain children's differences and how you need to parent them differently. I've read Personality Plus, and this helps to focus the knowledge of the personalities toward children. I like that there are many examples of adults who are not the parent (grandparents, aunts, teachers) using this info.
My only suggestion is for more detailed solutions. For instance, it says you need to work to try to get the Phlegmatic child to talk to you, but don't be too pushy. I'd like ideas on how to go about that? How do you know if you tried hard enough, or gone too far? More specific ideas for each scenario would really help.

[Mim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great addition to Littauer's original book Personility Plus. She does a great job specifying the different personalities in children and how they may act as infants into adolescense. I could particulary relate to the story she had of a mom with her choleric infant...my story was exactly the same! It's good to know there are answers! Worth the read.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok - a good start to trying to think about the personality God's given my two daughters and how my personality interacts with each. Yet like so many books with "4 personality types," I come away dissatisfied because I just can't see how I fit into just one - people are much too complex!

[Josee Pauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

thank you Florence Littauer since I've read your book I have a better relationship with all 3 of my children. My greatest gain from this book is to understand how, I a choleric-sanguin personality, need and can deal with my very phlagmatic child. I strongly promote this book to all parents who don't seem to understand their children's actions or responses to your judgement or parenting.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really practical, concrete stories and examples on identifying personality traits of yourself and your children and using them to add grace to your relationship -- and not stress. Included is a Sanguine/ choleric/melancholy /phlegmatic personality test along with strengths, weaknesses, and other noteworthy characteristics of each personality type.

[Missie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! I do love psychology books, but this one was really easy to read and had good tips to help with my sanguine/choleric child. Now if I can just find a book to help me understand my two year old...

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this helped me understand my kids and what makes them tick a little but better. More importantly, I learned more about being the mom each of them needs with their very, very different personality types.

[Matt Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was extremely empowering in helping me to identify the needs of each of my children and be able to target specific ways to encourage and support them as they grow and develop. I wish I would've read this sooner.

[Karren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book for parents. Must Read. Similar to Personality Plus book.

[Alendra]

It's so funny how we must learn a lot from our own children,most of the parents will insist the children to understand them. But actually is the other way arround! we need to understand them!

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to deal with your child, how to understand them..It's a good book

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for all parents. Will help with all the things are kids do that upset us and why they do it!

[Sean Kiess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any parent with children

[T.J. Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who wants to not only parent better, but wants to understand their child better, this book is a must.