Growth and Development of a Child

From the time a child is born the temperament of him/her begins to show. The temperament of a child is stable across the board. From the beginning to the end that child’s temperament will stay the same. Since different temperaments are seen so early in life it is thought that a child’s temperament may be hereditary. Some psychologist believes that the differences in temperaments could be influenced by the way the child was nurtured, which would suggest that a child’s temperament would be set by the environment that he/she lived in. It is also thought a temperament may be influenced by the child’s gender. With all the theories on what influences the temperament of we still haven’t found a way to explain the temperament of a child.

Psychologist Thomas and Chess proposed that there were nine components in a temperament. “Thomas and Chess further proposed that variations in these nine qualities tended to cluster into three types that can be applied to about 75% of infants.” (Boyd&Bee, 2009, p.157) The infants that didn’t make it into that 75% showed a combination of the three types of temperament. A child may be an easy child, a difficult child, or a slow-to-warm up child. About 40% of infants are easy children. In an easy child, the child approaches new things positively, you can predict their sleeping and eating patterns and they and generally happy. 10 % of children are difficult children. A difficult child is the complete opposite of an easy child. Their patterns are irregular, they are emotional and irritable, and they are resistant to anything different in their lives. 15% of children are slow-to-warm-up children. A slow-to-warm-up child is doesn’t really show any intense reaction to anything. They are neither positive nor negative and appear nonresponsive to unfamiliar situations. Although an infant might be one of these a parent may not like it. If the parent does not like the temperament of their child they may try to change it using a form of...