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| CHILDREN'S THERAPY CENTER of Battle Creek, MI |
helping your child succeed!
| CHILDREN'S THERAPY CENTER of Battle Creek, MI |
Getting it Together The Children's Therapy Center Newsletter YOUR CHILD'S STYLE By Teri Allen, OTR What is your child's personality style?? If you understand your child's personality style, it will help you appreciate and develop your child's unique strengths. It will significantly enhance your ability to nurture and discipline your child. If you have more than one child, you already know that what works with one may not work with the other. You probably find that you have to communicate and nurture each of your children differently. The following information may help you understand why. Since the time of Hippocrates, it has been theorized that there are 4 basic personality styles. Each of us is a unique blend of those 4 personality styles. There is no right, wrong, or better personality style to have. It is important that you understand that your child's personality style is only one of the factors influencing her temperament and behavior. Robert Rohm, Ph.D. has developed a system that makes it easy for us to categorize, understand and communicate with each other about the personality styles. He refers to this as the DISC system. Dr. Rohm's visual representation for this follows and is a helpful aid. To help determine your child's unique style, first decide if your child seems outgoing or reserved. The outgoing child will be quicker to get comfortable with new people or situations. The reserved child may take longer to be comfortable with new people or make friends. If she is outgoing, her most dominant personality style belongs in the upper half of the circle. If she seems more reserved her primary personality style is in the lower half of the circle. Then you need to decide if your child is more people- oriented or task-oriented. The people-oriented child will prefer to be with other people versus doing a task by herself. The task-oriented child can be just as happy reading a book or involved in a task by herself. If more people oriented, your child's dominant personality style is on the right of the circle, if task oriented, on the left. Now that you have a sense for your child's most dominant style, it will be helpful to understand the behaviors that are commonly seen in that personality. However, since we are each a unique blend of personality styles, your child is likely to show behavior traits in more than one category. Dr. Rohm has given us the following list of descriptors for each personality style: D - outgoing and task-oriented I- outgoing and people-oriented dominant inspirational direct influencing demanding inducing decisive interactive determined impressive doer interested in people C -reserved and task- oriented S - reserved and people- oriented cautious steady calculating stable competent supportive compliant sensitive contemplative status quo careful specialist I hope this has peaked your interest to learn more!! If you are struggling with determining your child's style or would like to read information about how to more effectively parent your child, following are two great references - don't forget to share them with your child's teacher!! All About Bots! All About You!, by Dr. Robert Rohm, www.personalityinsights.com Different Children, Different Needs, by Charles F. Boyd, Multnomah Books. |
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