Reaching the slow-to-warm-up ones

While students don’t always fit into neat little boxes, I found value in the strategies to support students with various temperaments. Temperament is considered to be the biological component of an individual’s personality, and researchers have found nine major dimensions of temperament (activity level, rhythmicity, distractibility, approach-withdrawal, adaptability, attention span and persistence, intensity of reaction, quality of mood, and threshold of responsiveness). Individual characteristics within these nine dimensions seem to cluster together in specific and predictable ways (which is nice for keeping things simple!) so that we can identify 3 main temperament types: Easy, Slow-to-Warm-Up, and Difficult (in addition, over 30% of the population doesn’t fit into a neat category and would be considered to have a “Mixed” temperament).

Regardless of whether or not it is always accurate to label individual students as having a certain temperament, it is nice to have some new strategies to work with. I found the suggestions for the “slow-to-warm up” temperament useful during the past couple of weeks. One of my students (I’ll call her “Tiffany”) has been very withdrawn and quiet since she entered my class this semester. Any time we are doing something in class, Tiffany seems to hesitate (basically just sits there). My prior strategy has been to just nag her until she either begins the activity, and sometimes this is met with temporary success. But often, she will respond by putting her head down or asking to go to the bathroom. Tiffany has characteristics which align with those typical of the slow-to-warm-up temperament. Students with this temperament are initially withdrawn and approach new activities, people, and places with a fair amount of caution. It is not good to push children with this temperament too quickly because they need time to reflect and transition slowly into new situations. During the past few weeks, I have been trying to give Tiffany more time to move into new activities. I have been making sure she knows exactly what we are about to do and what is expected of her, but I am more gentle with her now so that she feels she has time and space to reflect on what she is about to do. We seem to have a little routine going now when she still seems very hesitant about beginning something, I make sure she understands what the instructions are and then tell her I’ll come back to check with her in a few minutes. By the time I come back to check in with her, she has now either started her work or is ready to begin. It seems that Tiffany may need more of a transition between class activities than other students. While it may not be possible to provide smooth transitions from activities during the lesson aside from verbal instructions, by giving Tiffany more flexibility and letting her know that it’s ok for her to sit quietly for a few minutes, I can help provide the support she needs. Once we seem to be on solid footing and she is more engaged in the class, I would like to encourage Tiffany to become involved in the class more quickly if possible.