Why Temperament Matters: Guidance Strategies for Young Children addresses early childhood behavior guidance strategies related to children’s specific temperament traits. There are nine temperament traits that influence a child’s behavior: Activity Level, Distractibility, Persistence, Adaptability, Approach/Withdrawal, Intensity, Regularity, Sensory Awareness, Mood. All nine temperament traits are grouped into three major categories of personality: easy/flexible, feisty/spirited, and slow-to-warm-up/sensitive.

This book provides specific ideas about how a child care provider can adjust the early childhood program and environment to meet the individual needs of each child’s temperament. There is a specific emphasis on children who fall into the feisty/spirited or the slow-to-warm-up/sensitive categories because they are often the ones who are expelled with challenging behaviors. Why Temperament Matters explains where challenging behaviors may originate in temperament and provides strategies for meeting temperament needs that prevent or lessen challenging behaviors.