Written by: Alancia King, Crystal Williams, PhD, Michaelene Ostrosky, PhD, Robyn DiPietro, EdM
Children’s temperament influences their social-emotional competence and behavior. In our most recent blog post, we addressed possible ways to intervene when needed to support positive outcomes for all children and some of the existing research focused on temperament-based interventions. To recap, Iverson and Garstein (2018) suggest four goals of temperament-based interventions:
- Improve caregivers’ understanding of how a child’s temperament can influence their behaviors
- Increase caregivers’ responsivity to a child to better improve their relationship with the child
- Teach caregivers numerous evidence-based practices to increase their social-emotional competence and reduce children’s challenging behaviors
- Help children use various evidence-based practices to improve self-regulation
Studies have shown the positive benefits of caregiver education and anticipatory guidance as it relates to a child’s temperament profile (Cameron et al., 2013; Dadds & Roth, 2008; Luke et al., 2017; McCormick et al., 2015). These practices can help caregivers better foster positive caregiver-child interactions, manage children’s behaviors, and decrease future psychiatric diagnoses.
In the following section, we look at Justin and Ariana (from a previous blog post) to illustrate what temperament-based interventions might look like in practice for children with a variety of temperament profiles.
Justin is four years old. He loves being read to, knows all his letters, and can spell and read basic two and three-letter words. His teachers decide to meet with his family to discuss ways they can better support his transition into his new preschool classroom given his temperament profile (behavior inhibition). At the meeting, Justin’s teachers discuss his strengths and their concerns. They are worried about Justin’s adverse reactions to novel situations and social interactions, especially the high levels of anxiety he seems to exhibit. His teachers indicate a desire to help Justin feel comfortable enough in the classroom to share his thoughts and ideas, respond when his peers initiate play with him, and, eventually, begin to initiate play with others. Justin’s teachers present his parents with a handout of evidence-based practices for supporting children with his temperament. Together, Justin’s teachers and parents choose four evidence-based practices they agree he will benefit from based on his interests and strengths at school and home. They all decide to spend the next three weeks implementing the practices then met again to share their thoughts.
| Evidence-Based Practice | Description | Target Outcome |
| Small Group Activities | Two-three students working together on a shared task or activity (e.g., three students using magnetic tiles to build a barn for a zookeeper.) | Encourage social interaction and communication with peers by working together on a common task |
| Children’s Books on Shyness | Books written for children that explore what shyness is, why children sometimes feel shy, and ways to manage feeling shy in different situations | Allow Justin to see others experience shyness and demonstrate how they cope; engaging in conversations about how and why book characters responded to specific situations |
| Social Roles | Roles in the classroom that encourage children to initiate social interactions with their peers (e.g., Messenger, Paper-Passer, Lunch Card Collector, etc.) | Encourage Justin to initiate communication with his peers in low-stakes settings |
| Adult Modeling of Effective Communication and Social Skills | An adult demonstrates effective communication and social skills so others can learn and initiate them | Assist Justin in acquiring and begin using the communication and social skills he sees modeled |
After choosing these practices with Justin’s parents, his teachers discuss ways to keep an open line of communication between them and agree to do so using daily notes sent home. The team agrees to meet again in three weeks to discuss Justin’s progress.
Ariana is four years old, loves meeting new people, and is often referred to by adults as someone with exceptional social skills for her age, particularly sympathy. Ariana’s parents saw the same poster in a doctor’s office as Claire’s parents. They, too, decided to sign up for the parent training program. During the program, Ariana’s parents learned the same overall evidence-based practices as Claire’s parents, plus important calming techniques children can use when daily dilemmas present themselves. Ariana’s parents also discovered that children with very high regulation skills, like their daughter, may become hyper-vigilant and more likely to develop internalizing behaviors. The evidence-based practices her parents learned can be used to support Ariana when her peers do not respond positively to her attempts to comfort them. They decided to implement the following two strategies:
| Evidence-Based Practice | Description | Target Outcome |
| Peer or Adult Modeling | A peer or adult demonstrates desired behaviors or actions in certain situations so others can learn and initiate them | Teach Ariana ways to support her peers instead of taking responsibility for them |
| Calming Techniques | Therapeutic exercises that assist with decreasing anxiety and stress
(e.g., Deep/Belly Breathing) |
Teach Ariana calming techniques to help combat anxiety in response to unfavorable responses from her peers |
After learning about these evidence-based practices, Ariana’s parents share them with her teachers. They offer to come into the classroom to model how they use them or to video themselves using them at home so her teachers could implement them during the school day as well.
The following are links to resources professionals can use to help children who need temperament-related support:
- Examples of Evidence-Based Behavior Interventions
- Classroom Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS Framework)
- How to Help a Shy Child
- Shy/Withdrawn Students: Recommendations for Teachers
References
Cameron, J. R., Rice, D. C., Sparkman, G., & Neville, H. F. (2013). Childhood temperament-based anticipatory guidance in an HMO setting: A longitudinal study. Journal of Community Psychology, 41(2), 236-248. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21526
Dadds, M. R., & Roth, J. H. (2008). Prevention of anxiety disorders: Results of a universal trial with young children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 17(3), 320-335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-007-9144-3
Iverson, S. L., & Gartstein, M. A. (2018). Applications of temperament: A review of caregiver-
focused temperament-driven interventions. Early Education and Development, 29(1), 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2017.1341805
Luke, F., Chan, C. C., Au, A. & Lai, S. M. K. (2017). Adaptive parenting for alleviating young children’s shyness: A randomized controlled trial of an early intervention program. Infant and Child Development, 26(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2030
McCormick, M. P., O’Connor, E. E., Cappella, E., & McClowry, S. G. (2015). Getting a good start in school: Effects of INSIGHTS on children with high maintenance temperaments. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 30, 128-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.10.006
Image Credit: Pixabay.com, CC0
