Fisty Children Essay

Anyone who has spent time with or around children will notice that each one has a special personality all of their own. Children, like adults, have different traits that make up their personalities. Experts have researched this phenomenon in detail and classified children into different categories. Some experts have named more than three categories, but Peter L. Manigone has chosen three that most experts agree with. These categories have been named “flexible,” “fearful,” and “feisty.” Children generally may have similar interests, but the way they interact and deal with these interests displays their personality type.

The first personality type is called flexible. This is the most common of the three types. About “40 percent of all children

About “10 percent” of children fit into this category (Mangione). A feisty child expresses their opinions in a very intense way. Whether they are happy or mad, everyone around them will know how they feel. These children remain active most of the time, and this causes them to be very aggressive. Feisty children often have the tendency to have a “negative persistence” and will go “on and on nagging, whining and negotiating” (“Facts About Temperament”) if there is something they particularly want. Unlike flexible children, feisty children are irregular in their napping and feeding times, but they do not adapt well to changes in their routines. They get “used to things and won’t give them up” ("Facts About Temperament"). Anything out of the ordinary could send them into some type of fit. If these children are not warned of a change, they may react very negatively (Mangione). Feisty children also tend to be very sensitive to their surrounding environment. As a result, they may have strong reactions to their surroundings.

When dealing with feisty children, the caregiver should know strategies that receive positive results when different situations arise. Mangione supports the “redirection technique” to calm feisty children. This method helps when the child is reacting very negatively to a situation. To properly implement the redirection