Purpose: This is an activity designed to help participants apply information about individual differences as they focus on one child's temperament. The information about the child's temperament is then used to plan for success by modifying routines, expectations, or the caregiver's behavior to create a better fit.
For this activity you will need:
· One
copy of Handout D: Temperament Characteristics, for each participant
· A
flip chart and markers
Step 1: Begin this activity by reviewing the information in the Background Information section on temperament (pages 33-34). Remind participants that temperament is just one of the factors in understanding possible causes for children's behavior.
Step 2: Now ask the group to create a typical day in the life of a Head Start child.
On a flip chart, list the activities and routines that make up a typical day. Obviously there will be differences among programs, but see if the group can come up with a list of activities, in sequence, that occur in most programs.
Your flip chart
may end up looking something like this:
| ·
Arrival & free play · Welcome circle · Wash hands · Snack time · Outdoor play/large motor · Story circle |
·
Wash hands · Lunch time · Brush teeth · Nap time · Small group projects · Free play |
Step 3: Distribute Handout D: Temperament Characteristics, and give the group a few minutes to read it through and ask questions. Then ask participants to think of a particular child with whom they have a relationship. This should be a preschool-aged-child and can be their own child, a relative, a child in the program, a neighbor, or another child. It should be a child they know well.
Step 4: Ask each participant to fill out the handout for the child they have in mind. Circle the number, on a scale of one through five, that characterizes that child (one and five represent the extremes of the behavior).
Step 5: Use the typical day as the basis for a guided imagining. Ask the group to imagine that they are in the shoes of the child they profiled for the day. Have them imagine themselves with that child's temperament and imagine how the child may experience the events of the day.
Walk the group through the activities and transitions, asking participants to reflect on these questions:
· What
is it like to be this child?
· What is
separation like?
· What is
entering a free play group like for you?
· How is
it to leave the blocks and have to go wash your hands?
· What activities
and transitions are easy for you as this child?
· What activities
and transitions are particularly stressful for you as this child?
Step 6: After completing the guided imagining of the day, ask group members to think about the things that were difficult for "their" child and come up with at least three strategies for improving the fit between the child's temperament and the demands and expectations of the setting.
For example, the slow-to-warm-up child may need a teacher close by while separating from parents and easing into a group of children. The very active, intense child might need some kind of quiet sensory activity (squashing modeling clay) to help her sit through circle time, or maybe she could have an alternative to go to after five minutes of circle time.
Step 7: Ask participants to find partners and share with each other what it was like to be this child on this day. Also have participants share strategies for modifying the environment or demands that would help the child achieve success.
Ask participants:
· Was it
hard to play a day in the shoes of a child?
· Were there
any surprises in what the child found stressful?
· Did systematic
consideration of temperament help you imagine what would be stressful for the
child?
· Step back
into the child's shoes and imagine the day with the new strategies developed
in Step 6 in place: How did these strategies help you handle
the day?
Trainer's note:
A home-based alternative to this activity would be easy to do. In Step 2, work with a family member to construct a typical sequence of activities in the day of the child at home. It is likely that children at home have less predictable routines and schedules, but for the purposes of the activity construct a representative day that includes typical activities. Conduct the guided imagining with the family member and reflect on the questions contained in the rest of the activity just as in the staff workshop.
Points to Consider
- Temperament characteristics are evident in their most "pure" state, that is, unmodified by environment, in infancy. It often helps to talk to parents about what their child was like as a young infant when trying to understand what behavior is determined by temperament versus what may be a response to an experience or some other cause.
- Most settings are better at meeting the needs of children with certain temperaments than others.
- To what temperaments does your setting accommodate most easily? (Ask yourself, who is considered the "good" or "easy" child in this setting?)
- What kind of accommodations can be made to make the environment fit with different types of temperament?