Temperament Tango: Reading Your Baby's Cues

Welcome to the  📍 Growing Parent Podcast. I'm Marla McBride, your host. Are you the mom or dad of a newborn to five year old? Do you wanna be a great parent but have no idea? How are you so afraid of messing up your kids that you're overwhelmed by anxiety come grow in your parenting confidence Through the Growing Parent podcast courses and community, I'm looking forward to serving. 

 Hey, growing parent friends. Today we are talking about temperament. Temperament is an important feature of social and emotional health and development. It's the way we approach the world. It's a trait that we're born with that is influenced by our dna. It's also influenced by our family. Environment and experiences.

It's each individual's way, so to speak. Have you heard that before? That's just the way he is. That's just her way of doing things. Becoming a student of your child's temperament helps parents learn to read cues and feelings more easily. 

Each parent and caregiver also have their own temperament. The compatibility between each child and parent is called goodness a fit. This happens when the parent's expectations and methods of caregiving match the child's style and ability. The parent doesn't have to change who they are. They just factor in their child's type and trait when responding to their.

If you have a very active child, you may wanna consider packing several activities to keep them busy while waiting at a restaurant. If your child is slow to warm, you may leave for an outing 30 minutes earlier than you would normally just to help your child transition to that unfamiliar space, and it gives that child some time to adjust to the new environment.

If you want some more details, some more scientific details, just do a Google search of temperament pioneers, Stella Chess, C H E S S, and Alexander Thomas that will give you all kinds of good, juicy, scientific details if that's your.

I am going to talk about the points that are relevant to parenting. So the first thing that you need to know is that there are three types of temperament. There's easy, active and slow to warm. There are also temperament traits. Depending on which body of research you referenced, there are between five to 11.

So here's the parent take. There are types and traits of temperament. I would like for you to listen to which type you believe your child is. Consider what type you and your spouse are. All right, here we go. Easygoing is the first temperament type we're gonna talk about. Easygoing children develop a regular routine quickly and adjust to change easily.

They tend to be happy and active from birth. If you have an easy baby, be sure that you're providing plenty of time for your child, their easygoing nature. Makes it easy to overlook them, provide challenging activities and encourage that, will encourage their growth. Early research shows that about 40% of these babies fall into this category.

The second temperament type. Slow to warm. This group tends to have a low activity level, mild responses to stimuli and new situations. They tend to withdraw from new situations and require more time to adapt, to change often these babies. Are observant and calm. They seem shy since this group is less likely to draw attention to themselves.

They tend to be more obedient as they get older and are well liked by adults. About 15% of babies and toddlers fall into this category. The third. Type is active. This group has varied routines and approaches life with great zest. They can be described by some parents as difficult because their patterns are unpredictable.

About 10% of babies fall into this category. Now I'm going to tell you that everybody should get an easy baby because. Ensures that our species continues. Everybody also needs an active baby because an active kiddo kicks us off our parenting high horse and helps us stop judging other parents. We learn from this child that we are truly only in control of so many things.

That remainder of children fall into a combination of all three types. And no type is better than the other. They're just how we're made. And it, it takes all types. We need all types of people. So the parenting takeaway, what type do you believe your child is? Easy, slow to warm or active, or a combination of three.

Which type do you believe you and your spouse? . So the next component is temperament traits and researchers have identified five to 11 traits. We're going to focus on nine temperament traits, and I'm going to use the Georgetown University's temperament tool as a resource for this part of the podcast. So the nine traits we'll be reflecting on are activity level distractability intensity, regular.

sensitivity, approachability, adaptability, persistence and mood.

Activity level.  is the, this just the general level of motor activity that everybody has when they're awake or asleep. It involves large and small muscle movement like running, jumping, rolling over, holding a writing utensil, picking up toys. So within activity level you have high activity and low activity.

The adult who has a high activity level, has difficulty sitting still. The child who has a high activity level is squirmy and active low activity adults sit back quietly and prefer sedentary activities. The child with a low activity level prefers less noise and movement. The second temperament trait is distractability.

This is the ease at which one can be distracted or your, or one's concentration level or focus what their level is, so to speak. So there are high distractability and low distractability levels. And that's all within a range of normal. Just because you have a high distractibility level does not mean that you have a diagnosis or that your child has a diagnosis.

This is in a, within a range of normal, and you can be highly distractable and still be normal.  so the adult who's highly distractable has difficulty concentrating and paying attention. When engaged in an activity is easily distracted by sounds or sight during activities, the highly distractable child is very distracted by discomfort, noticing even, even small signals of discomfort, such as hunger, feeling sleepy.

Those sort of things. Low distractability adults have a high degree of concentration pay attention when engaged in an activity and are not easily distracted by sounds or sight during activities. The child who, who has low distractability can handle discomfort and does not seem to be bothered by very much at.

The third temperament trait is intensity. This refers to the energy level of one's emotional response, both positive and negative. Within the range of intensity, you have high intensity and low intensity. High intensity. Adults and children have strong and intense positive and negative reactions. Low intensity adults and children have muted emotional reactions.

The fourth temperament trait is regularity. This relates to the predictability of biological functions such as eating, sleeping. Highly regular adults and children have predictable appetite, sleep, and elimination patterns. Irregular adults and children have unpredictable appetite, sleep, and elimination patterns.

Fifth temperament trait is sensitivity. So you have high sensitivity and low sensitivity. The sensitivity describes how sensitive one is to physical stimuli, such as light sound. Textures a highly sensitive adult and child are sensitive to physical stimuli like sounds, taste, touch, temperature changes.

They tend to be pickier eaters. They have trouble sleeping in a strange bed. Low sensitivity. Adults and children are just the exact opposite. They're not sensitive to stimuli, sounds, taste, touch, temperature changes, don't bother them, and they can fall asleep anywhere and they try new foods easily.

Approachability. This is one's initial response to new places, situations, or things. Adults and children have either high approaching or low approaching. High approaching individuals eagerly approach. New situations are people low approaching adults and children are hesitant and resistant when faced with new situations, people or things.

Adaptability high, high adaptability and low adaptability. This is just.  what it is, how one adjusts to changes and transitions. Adults who are highly adaptable, transition easily to new activities and situations. Children require a very small amount of time to feel okay in a new situation. Adults with low adaptability need more time for transitioning to new activities or situations.

Children may cry, stay close to the caregiver before approaching a new situation. Persistence relates to the length of time one continues in activities in the face of obstacles. Adults and children who have a high persistence level continue with tasks or activities in the face of obstacles, and do not get easily frustrated adults and children with low persistence.

Move on to new tasks or activities when faced with obstacles and get frustrated more easily. Persistence is a very interesting characteristic to me. Persistence is. A component that can be very annoying to parent, but persistence serves children in their adult life very well. Mood is our final temperament trait.

It's one's tendency to react to the world in mainly a positive or negative way. So adults and children who have positive mood react to the world in a positive way and are generally cheerful. Adults and children who have a more serious mood react to situations in an observant, sometimes more serious way.

They tend to be thoughtful about new situations. So what's the parent takeaway? Where does your child fall? In each of these nine areas, where do you fall? How about your spouse? So knowing, understanding and adjusting to each family member's temperament helps parents create a goodness of fit. Being aware of each family member's, temperament helps each family member to appreciate each person's I guess their individual uniqueness, their personality that comes together to make your family unique. 

 📍 Thanks for listening today. I  📍 pray this has blessed you. I'd like to invite you to my private community "Meet up with Marla". For more personalized information, click the link in the show notes to join. Have a great day.