When the baby shows character. Character types of newborn babies: two curious classifications. And we are so different, happy, beautiful

The first girl is quiet and calm, she plays alone with pleasure. She observes everything that happens around her and rarely requires attention. Left alone, the girl sleeps for a long time and rarely eats.

The second child is fussy and easily annoyed. She twists her arms and legs, not stopping for a minute, even during sleep.

While most newborns sleep fourteen hours a day, the second girl only sleeps ten, and is awakened by the slightest rustle. It seems that she is constantly, somewhere in a hurry, eats very quickly, impatiently and swallows air along with feeding, therefore she needs frequent belching.

Both girls are absolutely normal in development and healthy. Both are equally good, but their personalities are so different that from the very birth they need to be perceived and raised in different ways.

The uniqueness of the character of the newborn

Like these babies, the baby will demonstrate uniqueness from the very first weeks of life. Learning about uniqueness is most exciting for the parents of an infant. Is he very active and energetic, or is he calm and slow? Does he behave timidly in new situations, for example, when taking a bath for the first time, or does he like it?

The key to his personality is in everything he does, from falling asleep to crying. The more you pay attention to these signals and learn how to properly respond to the uniqueness of the child, the calmer and more predictable your life will be in the coming months.

Early development of children's temperament

Although most of these early newborns are hereditary, their manifestation can be delayed if the baby is born prematurely.

Premature babies do not express needs such as hunger, fatigue, or discomfort as clearly as other newborns. They may be too sensitive to light, sound, and touch for months. Even playful speech can be too intense for them and make the child fidgety to turn away.

If this happens, then the parents need to wait until the crisis period is over and the child is ready for increased attention. Eventually, most of these early reactions will disappear and the newborn's natural traits will become more evident.

Characteristic trait of a newborn with low weight

Babies who weigh less than 2.5 kg at birth (low birth weight), even if born at term, may also be less sensitive than other newborns.

May be drowsy at first and appear alert. A few weeks later, they wake up, eagerly eat, but still remain irritable and hypersensitive between feedings. This irritability can last until the child is older.

Uniqueness of temperament

From birth, the characteristics of the temperament of a newborn child depends on the attitude and manifestation of parental feelings. If there were specific ideas about parenting before the birth of a child, they will need to be rethought so that they are in harmony with the character of the newborn. The same goes for expert advice - from books, articles and especially from well-meaning relatives.

A person is endowed with temperament from birth. It only seems that a person who has just been born behaves exactly like his peers. From the first months of life, you can determine which temperament model is most dominant for your baby - is he melancholic, choleric, sanguine or phlegmatic.

Tests that are applied to adults to determine type are not applicable here. Psychologists have developed a technique that allows you to determine the temperament of the smallest children.

Melancholic or "unhappy baby"

The baby is almost always tense and cannot sleep. At best, he slumbers. Even feeding does not give him pleasure. It is likely that it is difficult to feed him his fill because he sucks slowly. When the feeding is finally over, he does not fall asleep, but he also has no desire to play and communicate with his parents. It seems that he almost does not react when they talk to him, but if you want to put him in the crib, he expresses dissatisfaction. Such a child often wakes up at night.
Melancholic babies later than other children begin to smile and play with their own hands. He often looks unhappy.

Perhaps you will feel bad or cheated by your parents. After all, you exude love and take care of the baby in every possible way, and in return you receive only discontent and whims. You can be understood, but try to drive away such thoughts from yourself. Do not think that the unhappy expression on your face and incessant crying is a reproach to you as parents. It's just that your baby can't get used to living outside the mother's womb.

Try to get the baby to look at you, listen to your voice, or even smile at you. Once you get him to respond to you, both you and him will be better off. Always show your love to him, regardless of whether he responds to it or not.

Provide maximum comfort for a restless toddler:

Keep your baby warm. If he becomes calmer, let him spend the whole first month of his life warm. For ventilation, it is enough to open the window. Try to swaddle the baby better for bedtime. If he doesn't like it, he starts spinning.

Don't force-feed your baby - let him get as much milk as he wants.

More often take the baby in your arms, hold it to your chest and soothe. Use a sling to maintain physical contact between parent and child at all times.

Choleric or nervous child

The baby's natural reactions are very pronounced: they just turn pale with fright and yell even with weak stimuli. You might think that they are afraid of literally everything in the world. The choleric kid strains from the slightest touch, the feeling of hunger can bring the baby to a desperate cry in the shortest possible time.
How to deal with it

If the choleric person feels invariably calm and gentle treatment, then he himself will become more calm. Try not to do anything for the whole day, or at least for some part of the day, that would make your child howl with fright - provide peace and quiet.

Never rush and do everything as neatly as possible, even picking it up and putting it to bed. Try not to bother him too often, including by bathing - these babies, as a rule, hate bathing. It is enough to keep the "top" and "bottom" clean until the child becomes calmer.

Sanguine or active kid

Babies who prefer wakefulness to sleep do not sleep more than 12 hours a day (at a rate of 16 hours). Their sleep rarely lasts more than 2 hours in a row. After feeding, the child immediately falls asleep soundly, but after an hour or two he wakes up again. However, not at all because he wants to eat again, he simply does not want to sleep. Such a child can develop faster, since he has more time to look and study the surrounding objects.

How much time you can devote to it depends on how busy you are, but be prepared for sleepless nights. After all, at night the little sanguine person will also be awake.

Try not to be upset that the baby is not sleeping - he will fall asleep when he needs it.

Ideally, you can approach your baby at any time to talk. It is better that the stroller has a removable cradle that you can take with you to any room in the apartment.

Come up with new tasks for your child. For example, let him look at interesting objects. Hang bright toys over the crib and to the top of the stroller and change them often - so that the little one sees something new in front of him all the time.

Phlegmatic or little "sleepyhead"

There are children who are able to sleep all day long. But this does not come from relaxation. They, like nervous and "disgruntled" children, are also not yet ready for a normal existence outside the womb. Only instead of screaming loudly or not responding to parents, they avoid contact with the outside world, falling asleep. Such a kid requires almost nothing from you. Often, by the time of feeding, he has to be woken up, and at the very moment of feeding he can easily fall asleep. Such a child seems to be withdrawn from participation in life - he prefers "his" sleepy existence.

Such a baby is fairly easy to deal with, although you may be worried about his indifference. But think: while the baby is sleeping, you can go about your business.

Feed your phlegmatic baby on schedule. Even if he is asleep, wake him up. Otherwise, he will spend too much time without water, let alone nutrients.

Talk to it and carry it in your arms. Gradually arouse his interest in the world around him, in yourself and other relatives. Let him gradually feel that it is pleasant to be awake.

Finally, it should be recalled that any types of temperament in "pure form" are quite rare. However, your task is to determine the dominant one in order to help the baby adapt to life from the first days after birth.

Often parents, talking with their friends, say that their baby has a difficult or, conversely, gentle character, but not everyone knows how it develops, and what factors, besides parenting, can affect this.

From the moment of birth, the baby lives in a world whose boundaries are expanding more and more, as his physical needs grow, and in the process, the child's perception of the world around him and himself changes. The character in its entirety is revealed only after a few years, and it is formed gradually, and not immediately from the first days of life. However, in the early years, the so-called "foundation" is really laid, which will become the basis for those features of a person's character that will manifest themselves with age.

What is laid down by nature

A newborn can only assess his own state at the level of "I feel good" or "I feel bad", but his activity in the external world is actually very small, since he spends most of his time in a dream. However, during sleep, important processes take place in the infant's brain. This explains the fact that some babies are calm and calm, while others constantly scream and arrange sleepless nights for their parents.

Perhaps, at first glance, it seems that little children simply themselves do not know what they want, but in fact, it is during this period that their temperament is formed. This is not yet a character, but only a predisposition to one of its types, that is, the program of work of the psyche, laid down at birth. The term "temperament" is usually understood as some dynamic characteristics of the human psyche: the level of activity, features of movements and emotions.

The most famous classification of temperaments, taken as the main one among psychologists, is their division into four types: melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic and choleric. Many parents from the first days of their baby's life immediately assign him one of these types, and, accordingly, draw conclusions about what his character will be. However, they are wrong, because temperament is only the basis on which everything else is subsequently built. Parents should understand the temperament of the baby only in order not to subsequently break these features of his psyche and to build the upbringing process correctly.

Self-awareness as a person

The kid changes every day. Yesterday he did not react to anything except food and wet diapers, and today it already seems that his actions have become more meaningful. At the age of about three months, when the baby first begins to recognize others and react to their appearance with a smile, cheerful gurgle and movements, an important phase of his psyche begins. From the moment the child begins to interact with others, a period of active formation of his character begins.

By the age of six months, the baby develops grasping movements, which soon turn into purposeful desires to take this or that thing. At the end of the first year of life, the baby begins to move independently - crawl, roll from side to side, and soon learns to stand up and walk.

It is at this time that the main task of parents is to make the baby feel the maximum protection and a sense of security. If the baby realizes that he has nothing to defend against, subsequently unpleasant traits caused by defensive reactions will not appear in his character.

Cognition of the surrounding world

From the second year of life until the onset of school age, the child's psyche is formed most actively. Moving in space comes to the fore, and every day the baby learns more and more about the world around him: he meets new people, discovers previously unknown objects, places, names. It is at this age that he develops the basics of behavior in various situations, and also the baby learns to be independent.

The environment of the baby at this time most of all affects the formation of character, therefore it is so important for parents during this period to teach the baby everything that is most necessary. It is better to convey information that is useful for the baby not by moralizing and punishing for wrong behavior, but by showing it by your own example and with the help of fun games. Such important character traits as perseverance, courage, communication skills and the ability to empathize are very easy to instill in a child in collective games with interesting plots and rules.

What character is made of, and how to influence its formation

Character is a set of intellectual, moral, volitional and emotional traits formed on the "foundation" of temperament. The individuality of the character of each person is determined by the different proportions of the manifestation of certain features.

Intellectual traits include observation, curiosity, mental flexibility, and prudence. To form these qualities in a child, parents need to be attentive to everything that happens on a daily basis around the baby, as well as play educational games with him. Ask your child to find a connection between events (it is cold outside because the wind is blowing; when the wind blows, trees sway, etc.), read books together, learn songs and poems, teach him the skills of counting and writing. The most important thing is that such activities are not boring, otherwise the baby will very quickly lose interest in them.

Emotional traits cannot be developed through exercise, so the only thing parents can do is help their baby to experience as many positive emotions as possible. Teach him to take care of pets, play games, watch and discuss various films and cartoons with your baby, learn dances and listen to music. Do not forget to praise the child for the initiative or good deed. Gradually explain to your little one what compassion and empathy are.

In order for the kid to form strong-willed character traits - independence, purposefulness, endurance and the ability to take the initiative into their own hands, teach him to set goals and achieve them, show patience and perseverance, solve complex problems, and, of course, let the child make decisions on your own, starting at least with little things. Let the kid choose for himself, you will read to him at night, which playground you will go for a walk, what kind of porridge he will eat for lunch.

Moral traits, such as a sense of duty, honesty, humanity, collectivism, are also formed in crumbs under the influence of parents. If the child did not act as it should, do not scold him, but discuss the situation with him, help him find a way out of it and praise the baby for telling you everything honestly.

In order for a child to grow up as a kind and sympathetic person, from the very first years of life, teach him that you can not mock sick people and animals, and explain that you need to respect the feelings and opinions of other people. Under the guidance of sensitive and attentive parents, the baby will surely grow up to be an interesting personality.

Victoria Gritsuk