Families For Life | Temperament: What It Is and Why It Matters

Temperament describes a child's natural patterns of emotional and behavioural reactions to everyday experiences, and their ability to control and regulate those reactions.

A child’s temperament, emotionality, activity level and sociability appear to be related to the development of the child’s behaviour whether desirable or undesirable.

Genetic make-up or temperament: Temperament or a child's genetic make-up, explains why a person behaves in certain ways in response to stimuli e.g. some children want lots of attention and like to mix with others and talk a lot. Some cry easily and are hard to settle. Some are very active and have lots of energy. Some of these characteristics can make children difficult to manage.

Emotionality refers to an infant's arousal in response to events in his environment. The sight of a stranger or being spoken to by a stranger may upset one child but may not affect another.

Activity level refers to the energy the child displays in vigorous movement and activity. An active child will find it more difficult to accept the physical boundaries set by parents and caregivers than an infant with low activity level.

Sociability refers to an infant's inclination for interaction with people. A very sociable child who craves attention all the time will more likely demand social contact that an infant who only demands for attention when he is hungry or wet.

Contributed by: SingHealth