Understanding Your Child's Temperament

"This book … should revolutionize parenting for many readers." —Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, from the Foreword From a Respected Pediatrician Comes This Liberating Approach to Parenting Dr. William B. Carey, director of Behavioral Pediatrics at the renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, brings important research to the public in this enlightening book. Unlike many approaches to parenting that view children in relation to just one particular trait or behavior, Understanding Your Child's Temperament offers a way to look at your child in his or her totality, as a combination of nine different kinds of behavioral styles. Temperament is an individual's unique way of reacting to people, things, and situations—at home, at school, and in the community. Anxious parents can breathe a sigh of relief: Dr. Carey makes it clear that a child's temperament is mostly inborn, and not something caused by "good" or "bad" parenting. And, reassuringly, he explains that while about 50 percent of a child's temperament is genetic, parents can learn to work with it to prevent and reduce problems. Using Dr. Carey's practical strategies, parents will learn how to:

• profile a child's temperament in relation to nine aspects: activity • adaptability • distractibility • initial reaction • intensity • mood • persistence and attention span • regularity • sensitivity
• see both the positive and negative sides of temperaments
• apply the most rewarding techniques for working with your child's inborn nature
• tailor parental discipline to each child's temperament, and more