How early does temperament develop?

As your love for your baby grows, you will find that the ability to adjust to your baby, and the ability of your baby to adjust to you, matters a great deal. As an adult, you recognize that there are aspects of yourself that have not and will not change, regardless of the many other changes in your life (sometimes it is easier to recognize those ‘unchangeables’ in others). Child development specialists agree that, like you, aspects of your baby’s personality are stable too. These stable traits are called temperament.

For decades, psychologists studied the persistent parts of babies’ personalities. Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas, pioneers in this area, claim that distinct personality traits are discernible at four weeks. Their landmark study in the 1950s categorizes temperament in four categories: easy, difficult, slow to warm up, and mixed. Later work in the area of temperament shows that 40 percent of babies show the characteristics of an easy baby, 10 percent difficult, 15 percent slow to warm up, and the remaining 35 percent mixed.

While traits are apparent at four weeks of age, a truer picture of your baby’s temperament will emerge around three or four months of age. As your baby matures, pay attention to how she consistently responds to changes in her environment. In other words, ask, ‘How is my baby predisposed to respond to change?’ Consider the following temperament traits when you think about your baby:

• What is your baby’s activity level?
• What is your baby’s attention span?
• How adaptable is your baby?
• How distractible is your baby?
• How does your baby respond to new sensory experiences?
• Has your baby developed predictable eating and sleeping patterns?

You may have begun to place your child in one of the four temperament categories using these questions. Below you will find a table and additional text that more fully describe each temperament and some suggestions for you on how to work with this aspect of your baby’s personality.

	Easy	Slow to warm up	Difficult	Mixed
Other common names	Easy-going, low reactive, placid	Sensitive, touchy	Over-active, fussy, uptight, intense	Unpredictable, moody
Percent of babies with this temperament	40 percent	15 percent	10 percent	35 percent
Behaviors	Moderate activity level Develops regular eating, sleeping, and bowel routines When crying is calmed easily Adapts to changes in environment	Moderate activity level Withdraws from new situations and people Has trouble calming herself, even with your help Shows signs of over-stimulation by the end of the day	High activity level Smiles infrequently Does not establish a routine Has trouble falling and staying asleep Inconsolable at times	Shows characteristics of two or three of types Easy in some situations while difficult in others
What you can do as a parent	Because he is less demanding, you may need to be conscientious about: ·         Giving regular looks, smiles, and playtime ·         Learning his subtle cues	Expect that your baby will not like new things right away	Focus on guiding behavior, not forcing change or ignoring demands	Learn to read your baby’s cues, especially what situations lead to over-stimulation

Temperament chart

(Source: Satter, E. (2005), Bennet, R. (2004), and Landsdown, et al., (1996))

Easy

An easy-going baby falls into a regular routine, rarely cries, easily calms, and readily adapts to changes in his environment. As the parent of a baby with an easy temperament you will need to learn your baby’s cues for hunger or a diaper change because often they are not as overt as crying. Because he is less demanding and you have so many other demands in your life, remember to dedicate some time to play with your newborn and offer lots of smiles and loving looks to him throughout the day. Again, research shows that approximately 40 percent of babies display an easy temperament.

Slow to warm up

A slow to warm up baby has a tendency to pull back from new situations. As your baby matures, this trait (in 15 percent of babies) can come across to others as shyness when in fact he only needs more time than an easy baby to comfortably interact with unfamiliar people or even familiar people in an unfamiliar situation. Even as a newborn, limit introducing your baby to new situations, people or objects when he has been awake and alert for a long period of time. That is, carefully introduce new things and people, as much as possible, when he is well-rested and fed in order to set him up to succeed. When pressed, a slow to warm up baby can become inconsolable. Recognize this as a clear sign of stress: remain calm, attend to your baby’s needs, and make note of what behaviors he displayed before becoming inconsolable in order to make future adjustments.

Difficult

A difficult or intense baby demands a lot of attention because he will have an irregular routine, trouble getting and staying asleep, and become inconsolable. He shows particular sensitivity to touch, including diapering and being held. In short, an intense baby can be exhausting and requires you to call on your support system. (See ‘Getting the support you need’, page 000.) As you try to learn his cues, do what you expect most babies would prefer and then adjust to his cues in that particular situation. Every new situation or environment will require you to experiment and see what helps him adjust. Do not expect to find a pattern (and be relieved if you do). In the end, keep in mind that your baby’s intense personality traits are not your fault, but they may require you to find the support you need to take a break from his demands. As your baby grows beyond the newborn period, working with his behaviors will prevent a difficult baby from becoming a troubled child. Keep in mind that one out of ten babies display this temperament.

Mixed

A significant portion, 35 percent, of babies show mixed temperament traits (aspects of two or three temperament types). Understanding the demands of and appropriate responses to each of these temperaments applies to your parenting situation. What is needed on your part is attentiveness and flexibility. Your baby will be difficult (inconsolable and have an irregular schedule) at times and show a more even temperament at other times. Be sure to watch for signs of over-stimulation and pay attention to his cues (facial expressions, gazes, and/or activity level).

Gaining perspective on temperament

The finesse of parenting comes in loving your baby just the way she is and teaching her how to react to new stimuli. Your baby’s behavior will change over time because of greater experience with the world and maturation of her nervous system and emotions. Temperament, however, persists, and is one of the many things that influence the total picture of your baby’s personality.
Nurse Rowena Bennett cautions parents to resist simplistically by labeling any difficult behavior as a result of temperament. She writes, ‘Although temperament will influence how a baby behaves, temperament is not the cause of a baby’s difficult or distressed behavior.’ She continues, ‘In other words, temperament may explain why some babies react more intensely than others, but it does not explain what a baby is reacting to.’

Why does this distinction between understanding why and what lies at the heart of your baby’s reactions matter? Simple. An over-reliance on temperament as a cause could lead you (and those who support you) to dismiss your baby’s strong reactions as due to ‘hard wiring’, when what a loving parent needs to do is learn about her baby and take note of what she reacts to in order to influence her behavioral learning.

Focus on loving your baby the way she is. What matters most is that you and your baby adjust to one another. You are your child’s first and best teacher, and a good teacher knows her subject well. So your task is to study your little one and adapt to her cues regardless of type of temperament. By consistently meeting her needs, you will help your baby develop and adapt to the many situations that life will present.

With any temperament, respond to your baby’s cues, subtle or overt. Tailor your parenting to your baby and react to her needs in a consistent way. For a baby with a slow to warm up, difficult, or mixed temperament, focus on how to present new things.

Your parenting goal is not to ‘break’ your child’s ‘bad behaviors’ or will. Rather, strive to teach your baby much-needed coping skills that will head off a tendency to react poorly or be difficult as she matures. Focus on equipping your baby, regardless of temperament, to handle challenges well. Some babies just provide more opportunities for learning this than others.

Next: Baby brain development - building a foundation for life

By Anne Oxenreider