A Child at a Time: Understanding Temperament

Contents

DEDICATION

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Defining Acronyms

1. Temperamental Differences

2. Understanding Parents’ Interactions with Their Children

3. School Factors and Temperament

4. Fostering Development of Jamaican Children

5. Teachers’ Assessment of a Sample of Jamaican Children’s Temperament

6. INSIGHTS into Children’s Temperament Programme

7. The Influence of INSIGHTS on Parenting Practice

8. The Influence of INSIGHTS on Teaching Practices

9. Facilitating Differences in Children’s Development

References

The University of the West Indies Press

7A Gibraltar Hall Road, Mona

Kingston 7, Jamaica

www.uwipress.com

© 2024, Loraine D. Cook

All rights reserved. Published 2024

A catalogue record of this book is available from

the National Library of Jamaica.

ISBN: 978-976-640-931-9 (print)

ISBN: 978-976-640-947-0 (epub)

The University of the West Indies Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Cover and text design by Christina Moore Fuller

Cover painting by David Christopher Cook

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to David Christopher Cook. As my husband, he is my inspiration and rock. David is always available to discuss my ideas. I thank him for his patience, love and commitment.

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Hypothetical Relation between Environmental Stress and Behaviour Problems as Mediated by Predispositional Risk

Figure 7.1: How often did parents use what they learnt from INSIGHTS?

Figure 7. 2: How much did parents learn?

Figure 7.3: How useful did parents find the information received?

Figure 7.4: How did the parents rate the facilitators?

Figure 7.5: Parents Words That Describe How They Found the INSIGHTS Experience

Figure 8.1: How often did teachers use what they learnt in INSIGHTS?

Figure 8.2: How much did teachers learn?

Figure 8.3: How useful was the new information teachers received?

Figure 8.4: How effective was the teachers’ facilitators?

Figure 9.1: INSIGHTS Wall in Alpha School

List of Tables

Table 1.1: Higher-Order Behavioural Tendencies

Table 2.1: Summary of Episodes of the Strange Situation

Table 5.1: Means, SDs, and Cronbach‘s Alpha of the T-SATI Dimensions

Preface

As adults, we are responsible for nurturing and shaping the lives of young children. We are responsible for shaping these lives into healthy functioning adults and citizens of our society.

While nurturing children, it is important that we, as adults, do not take on the role of filling up empty jars; children are not blank slates for us adults to scribble all over. Instead, they are born with DNAs that hold all their inherent characteristics that unfold as they grow and mature. Psychological traits from mental illness to mental abilities characterize some families. DNA can be used to detect mental illness from birth long before any brain or behavioural markers can be detected (Plomin 2018, 6). Similarly, certain individuals’ characteristics, in other words, temperaments, have been linked to their DNA (Kagan and Snidman 2004). Children are born with biological features to understand their environment from birth.

Consequently, as their guides, we adults must understand their inherent pathways. It is imperative that children are given room to express their wants, emotions, and actions, and we need to understand these expressions. We need not embrace their ways as always right, but we should regulate our irritation and disappointment when we see their waywardness. These waywardnesses are opportunities for us adults to grow to understand and prize children’s differences, appreciate the fact that they are different from us, and nurture those differences (Keirsey and Bates 1984).

Differences in children’s temperament impact various aspects of their life experiences from childhood through adolescence and throughout their adult lives. In a longitudinal study, individual differences in behaviour were observed at age three. These behavioural differences have, for example, been linked to adult mental illness, number of years of educational attainment, number of adjudicated criminal offences, marital discord and divorce, and income levels (Martin, Lease and Slobodskaya 2020, 4).

This book introduces the role of children’s temperament (that is, the individual’s characteristics), parents, teachers and peers in influencing the behaviour or action of children in particular in the classroom. I hope this book will help adults, specifically classroom teachers, responsible for the development of children (birth to eight years) to make sense of children’s disruptive behaviours, otherwise referred to as problem behaviours. Sometimes, students’ sense of indignation and outrage may be a reaction to their environment; most times, they react to the negative environment they are situated in at home, on the playfield or in the classroom. For some students, it is the lack of understanding of how to control the negative reactions of their temperament that causes a consistent display of disruptive behaviours. Many of these children with problem behaviours have few friends or are from homes pierced with the knife of poverty. Students’ behaviour at school may mirror their relationship with parents and other family members at home; it may be a cry for help. I hope that the information in this publication will bring understanding and care for children by adults. Our role as adults is to help children manage the negative reaction of their temperament, not to treat them with disdain nor as evildoers; they are our adults of tomorrow.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to:

Culture, Health, Arts, Sports, and Education Fund 

(CHASE) for their financial support for the intervention for three years (2014–17).

Professor Sandee McClowry for unselfishly sharing and guiding the implementation of the intervention in Jamaica.

Mrs Grace McLean, the then CEO of the Ministry of Education, for her support of the programme and its implementation in the early childhood institutions.

Dr Rose Davies, senior lecturer at the School of Education, for the commitment and drive that she brought to the project. Dr Rose Davies also chaired the project advisory committee for the duration of the project.

The advisory committee members who ensured that the project was monitored and managed efficiently: Pastor Bruce Fletcher, Dr Mariette Newman, Mr Collins, and Mrs Gayle Mitchell.

Professors Jennings-Craig and Stafford Griffith, directors of the School of Education, who in their separate terms gave their support.

Early Childhood Commission (ECC) for their commitment and dedication through the involvement of their development officers in the first two and half years of the project. The development officers were the first facilitators of INSIGHTS in the various schools, both in the urban and rural areas.

Mrs Michelle Campbell from ECC, whose commitment and drive enabled the collaboration between School of Education and ECC. Mrs Nicolette McDonnough Foster, principal of Alpha Infant School, whose commitment and support added passion to implementing the INSIGHTS programme.

The development officers who embraced the principles of the programme and added passion and professionalism in the delivery of the programme.

To all the principals, teachers and parents who strive for the improvement and betterment of Jamaica's children, we are forever grateful.

Thanks to the following family and friends who were a tremendous encouragement:

My husband, David Cook, for his unrelenting support.

My sons, Christopher, Jonathan and Luke Cook.

My sister, Carol Palmer.

My grandson, Ezra.

I am grateful for the wisdom and advice of Dr Tony Bastick, Professor Beatrice Boufoy Bastick, Prof. Errol Miller and the late Dr Monica and Earl Brown.

My friends and affirmers, Dicky Powell, Charlton Romer, Alison Nicholson, Bruce Fletcher, Ansel Aiken and Rawle Tyson.

My mother, Mrs Listene Victoria Palmer, has left an indelible mark on my life.

Finally, I express gratitude to the Fulbright Scholarship Programme of the US Embassy, which facilitated this collaborative activity between the School of Education, University of the West Indies and New York University.

Introduction

Children between the ages of three and eight in the classroom have diverse characteristics (temperament); teachers and parents influence these children. However, these adults in a school setting have a common goal – helping children be educated and thereby preparing them to be healthy citizens of society. Teachers and parents who have successfully educated children always provide an environment that encourages learning and development. For the most part, this environment emphasizes the psychological dimension – providing emotional support and maintaining a safe environment for children to explore; that is, providing a threat-free environment. I am a teacher-educator who is passionate about children from birth being understood through the creation of a loving and nurturing environment. As adults, we want to be understood, so it is expedient that parents and teachers from very early in children’s life endeavour to understand each child. It is important to respond and communicate with them in such a way that the child can develop a healthy self-perception and thereby be able to relate to others.

Both teachers and parents are significant others in children’s lives and therefore are responsible for providing a loving and nurturing environment for children to develop. In so doing, it is important for adults to understand the characteristics of the children they are responsible for and how their response and reactions affect children and their subsequent development. While this book targets educators, parents can also benefit from the information and policymakers/planners for the early childhood years. Understanding children’s temperament is critical because children pay an exorbitant price when disciplined by adults who do not understand their characteristics (Levine 2002).

There are eight chapters: The first three chapters provide general information on temperamental differences and the different temperaments interaction with parental and school factors during children’s early development:

In chapter 1, we discussed temperamental differences and the rationale for studying temperament, assessed the stability of temperament over time and focused on a theoretical discussion of the interactions between temperament and the environment.

The focus of chapter 2 is on the interactions between parental factors and children’s temperament. First, there is a brief discussion of the interaction between attachment and temperament. Then, we look at different child-rearing styles and their interactions with children’s temperaments.

In chapter 3, we focused on school factors and temperament. First, we discuss the teacher-student relationship and how the relationship is influenced by students’ characteristics (temperament).

In chapter 4, we discussed the behavioural management strategies used in the development process of Jamaican children. The chapter included a discussion of the early childhood landscape in Jamaica. In discussing the early childhood landscape, we described several interventions and programmes targeting children in the Jamaican context. The chapter ends with an expanded discussion of the INSIGHTS into Children Temperament Programme.

Chapter 5 aims to discuss in more detail the various dimensions of temperament and their implication for teachers’ classroom practices. The discussion includes the temperamental profile of what typical children could look like based on a sample of Jamaican children’s temperament profiles reported by teachers.

Chapters 6–9 focus on the INSIGHTS into Children Programme. Chapter 6 gives background information on INSIGHTS in the Jamaican context (reports on the preliminary as a preliminary phase in the pilot of the programme in Jamaica. Chapter 7 reports on Jamaican parents’ view of INSIGHTS following their participation in the programme; chapter eight reports on Jamaican teachers’ view of INSIGHTS following their participation in the programme, and chapter nine, in this concluding chapter, activities of a selected school are shared as an example of sustainability of the INSIGHTS programme in Jamaican schools. 

A Child at a Time is a call to educators, parents and possible policymakers to recognize that children’s differences should not be taken for granted, especially in the early stages of their development. The book emphasizes differences in children’s characters and socio-emotional needs and how these differences influence how children respond to teachers’ and parents’ behavioural management strategies. 

Defining Acronyms

DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms (Source: https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Deoxyribonucleic-Acid)

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

CHASE

Fund – Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund

ECC – Early Childhood Commission

DRD4 – DRD4 (Dopamine Receptor D4) is a Protein Coding gene. Diseases associated with DRD4 include Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and Autonomic Nervous System Disease (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1815)

DC – Development Officers

SU – Surgency extraversion

EC – Effortful Control

CE – Centre for Early Childhood Education

CAPRI – The Caribbean Policy Research Institute

NYU – New York University

PALS – Peace and Love in Schools

PDR – Parental Daily Report

PECE – Project for Early Childhood Education

T-SATI – Teacher School-Age Temperament Inventory)

UWI – The University of the West Indies

1. Temperamental Differences

Two children may dress themselves or ride a bicycle with the same dexterity and have similar motives for engaging in these activities. Two adolescents may display similar learning abilities and intellectual interests, and their academic performances may coincide. These actions reflect their motivations and abilities. Yet, these two children or adolescents may differ significantly with regards to the quickness with which they move, the ease with which they enter a new social situation and the effort required by others to distract them from their chosen activity. These variations reflect differences in temperament (Chess 1990, 314–15).

From the moment of conception, the structure is laid for individual differences in behaviour. Even before babies are born, mothers observe that some babies are more physically active than others; some poke and kick from within the womb, while others seldom move (Martin, Lease and Slobodskaya 2020). Once babies are born, we observe differences in their behaviour; some babies adapt to a new environment more easily, while others are more physically active. By the time children enter the preschool stage and progress through the school system, parents and teachers notice the differences in behaviours and reactions. Some are withdrawn when meeting strangers, while others are excited and easily interact with strangers. Some children constantly run and jump, while others sit quietly for extended periods. Researchers have sought to study these differences in behaviour to address questions such as how are these behaviours predictive of individuals’ future behaviours? How stable are these early patterns of behaviour throughout an individual ’ s life? What causes these behavioural patterns in children?

In response to the latter question, psychologists and researchers from different professional disciplines and fields have provided evidence that the influences are multifaceted. The influences are a mixture of biology and the environment. Concerning genes, Plomin (2018) noted that in the 1960s, scientists conducted long-term studies with twins and adoptees that provided evidence that genetics contributed to the psychological differences between us. Fifty per cent of our psychological differences, according to Plomin, is caused by genetics. In other words, at the core of who we are and what distinguishes each of us is our DNA, genetics. Deater-Deckard and Wang (2012) argue that behavioural scientists have clear evidence that genetics contribute to individual differences in anger and irritability. Scientists have identified that an individual’s tendency to express anger is associated with the D4 receptor (DRD4) (Martin, Lease and Slobodskaya, 2020). Genetics only partially explain a child’s behaviour; the child’s environment also interacts with genetics to