Extraverts

I am reading the e-book “Nurture by Nature”, which attempts to influence readers to customise their parenting style according to the personality types of their children.

They have written the description to the Type model focused on the child, rather than the adult with that same preference, so that it is unnecessary to try to extrapolate the child’s tendencies from adult descriptions.

I wasn’t quite sure whether Christian was extraverted or introverted since he can be shy around strangers (which might just be a peculiar trait of children in general, rather than a personality trait). But reading this, I think Christian is clearly extraverted -

“The Extravert’s attention is drawn outward and is easily engaged by anything happening outside of the self. Extraverted children tend to get overexcited by the onslaught of stimulation and need other people to talk with in order to make sense of it all. Because they naturally prefer the world outside of themselves, Extraverted children learn best by interacting with the world in a very engaged, physical, and verbal way. They tend to be loud, vocal, and sometimes demanding, especially when they are little. Once they begin to put their words together, their speech seems to occur as an explosion. Many parents say that once their Exxtraverted children began to talk, they never stopped! in fact, they often insist that they be heard. Since they tend to think out loud, they often give quite long and involved explanations and stories. And, because they form most of what they want to say as they are saying it, it’s easy for them to lose their train of thought if they are interrupted or made to wait their turn to speak.

..for the very same reasons, Extraverted children frequently interrupt others, unable to hold onto any thought or idea for any length of time without expressing it. When you interrupt an Extraverted child’s words, you interfere with her thinking.

Extraverted children prefer the outer world because that’s where they are the most stimulated and feel most alive. Their natural expressiveness demonstrates itself in both words and actions – with great energy, bustle, and activity in everything they do. They may find it next to impossible to play alone for any period of time and need at least one person around them to help them get through the more introverted tasks like homework. For example, many Extraverted children find the kitchen table a much better place to get homework done. Left alone in a room, they become distracted, bored, or rambunctious as their energy drains away. They need other people around in order to keep their brains awake. Most of the behavior problems Extraverted children have in school are the direct result of being confined to a chair, and required to work for an extended period of time on a paper-and-pencil activity in a room where silence must be maintained.”