Understanding Your Child's Temperament

by William B. Carey

The Introduction of the original 1997 version from page XVII beginning to page XXI up to but not including

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2004

About the author

William B. Carey, M.D. is a pediatrician, who graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1954 and did his specialty training at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Subsequently he spent thirty-one years in primary pediatrics care mostly in Media, Pennsylvania. While in solo practice, he began his studies of child development and behavior, in particular of children's temperament differences. With a team of psychologists he developed for ages 1 month through 12 years a series of five temperament questionnaires, which have been widely used throughout the world and translated into many languages.

For the last twelve years he has been Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, teaching developmental-behavioral pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. His numerous publications on temperament include Coping with Children's Temperament: A Guide for Professionals (Basic Books, 1995) and Understanding Your Child's Temperament (Macmillan, 1997). His principal honors are the Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics and election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

- http://b-di.com/WBCnihpaper.html

Further information can be found in the article Daring Decade by Decade.

Reviews

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

They should hand this book out at every child's one-year well-baby visit. The author identifies nine traits we all have, and gives you an idea where your kid falls on the spectrum: activity level, persistence, distractability, sensitivity, willingness to try new things, sociability, are a few. The book was helpful to me because my oldest, of three kids, is a high-octane, sensitive, emotionally charged person, and I struggle to understand what is going through her brain, since I am opposite in many ways. The author points out ways to appreciate some traits that can be hard to appreciate, for instance, appreciate the positive responses from your intense child, because who else would be that over the moon about the new Hello Kitty bed slippers from Costco. The book also helped me focus on each of my kids as individuals, watching them more closely to see what their personalities are like, and adjusting my parenting style accordingly, versus seeing them as part of a three-kid herd. I also like how the author offers guidance for a range of situations and temperaments, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay total self promotion sort of well family anyway...this is one of the books my Dad has written. Aside from that, it is interesting on a varity of levels....when I became a parent it started to make a lot more semse to me.

A good chunk of the book talks about the traits of temprement and how to identify them and also what to do when there is a fundemental clash of temperament types. I certaionly was amused to discover that it wasn't merely that my sister and I couldn't get along...it was somewhat fated as we are so vastly different, for example.

(oh and that is my niece and nephew on the cover with Dad)

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was helpful in that it got me thinking about my children's responses and behaviors in a different way. However, I found it to be a little too repetitive and simplistic which was frustrating because I felt like the author probably had so much more he could say on the subject and so many more examples he could give if we were just having a conversation about temperaments rather than trying to cover such a huge topic in a short book.

[Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. If you are parenting intuitively there shouldn't be any information in this book that doesn't make any sense to you. If you feel you've got a pretty good handle on your kid this will help you understand and work with your child better. However, if you have issues outside the normal realm of a neurotypical perfectly healthy biologically yours child, this book will be very little help.

['kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

very helpful, but a workbook type read that you really need to commit to. It's nice b/c it walks you through identifying their temperaments, but also yours...how you react to them; each parent/child combo is unique (I still haven't gotten all the way through).

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for anyone with a very spirited child. Helped me to not only undrstand many things, but also except them and not place such high demands on a child that is wanting to simply explore childhood to the fullest.