Our "Impulsive" Child

I'm adding a new book to my list of "Things I'm Reading" (not that I've been doing much reading lately)...last night I started my potty training research with Stress Free Potty Training: A Commonsense Guide to Finding the Right Approach for Your Child by Sara Au and Peter L. Stavinoha, Ph. D. A few months ago I got to hear Dr. Stavinoha speak at a luncheon. He's not a big believer in one-size-fits-all methods of potty training. He feels success comes with identifying your child's temperment and knowing their personality and then by tailoring potty training to suit them, realizing that what works for one child may not work for another. I like this philosophy. I've learned that this is very true with discipline too...what works for my friend's child doesn't always work for Sam...so, I think it makes sense that potty training would work this way too.
Chapter 1 involves answering 8 questions in 5 categories, on a scale of 1-4 , to identify your child's personality type. Sam so clearly fit in the "Impulsive" category. I cracked up reading the questions because they were so much like Sam. He also has some "Goal-Directed" traits too, but most of all, "Impulsive"...that scares me a little! The key characteristics (from the book) of an impulsive child are: "curious, energetic, extremely active, risk taker, no fear, don't like to be bored, seek out new ways to stimulate themselves, outwardly friendly, talkative, easily distracted, trouble persisting in an activity, strong but quick tantrums"...That's my boy! Not sure he's got "Teacher's Pet" in his future though. John and I had a lot of fun with this first chapter and tonight I'm moving on to "Chapter 2: Determining Readiness".

*A side note* - One of the moms of a boy in Sam's playgroup has also read this book (she actually works at Children's Medical Center in the same department as Dr. Stavinoha) and she said her only complaint about the book was that it doesn't include any type of reward system (like candy or stickers). However, she said they did add that element in for the first couple of months and then phased it out.