"The word that distinguishes spirited children is more. They are typical children and yet more intense, persistent, sensitive, perceptive, and uncomfortable with change than other children. All children possess these characteristics, but spirited kids possess them with a depth and range not available to other children. These differences are apparent in everyday life. A video of the first bath for a spirited child may show her shrieking, her face red, movements jerky."
"Assuring parents that they are not doing something wrong Parents may have suspected since pregnancy that there is a vigor and heartiness to this child that stands out. Their intuition has fought the stares and the indictments brought against them when a friend's baby sleeps through a gathering while their spirited child fusses and fumes. They've sensed that this child was tougher to parent, but not quite sure if they were right, and if they were, they didn't know why."
Spirited children display heightened intensity, persistence, sensitivity, perceptiveness, and resistance to change compared with low-key peers. Their powerful reactions are spontaneous, physical, and reflect an inborn temperament rather than learned behavior. These pronounced responses appear in everyday moments, such as markedly different reactions to a first bath. Successful relationships depend on recognizing and working with the child's temperament rather than applying strategies designed for low-key children. Understanding temperament reassures parents that parenting challenges often stem from innate differences, not parental failure. Awareness helps reduce parental confusion, counters external judgments, and guides more effective, temperament-sensitive parenting approaches.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]