On the other hand, others may require a few weeks to get adjusted (Thompson; Connell; Bridges, 1988).
Threshold of Responsiveness:
This refers to how strong a stimulus requires to be reminded of a response from a child. For instance, one child may find a light touch irritating while another may need a deep hug to continue a response. This intensity of reaction refers to the vigor level of the response that is the characteristic of that child.
Another example is a child who has little threshold of responsiveness but at the same time his intensity of reaction is quite high may react to a bad taste medicine with a very loud, "Yuck!" along with lots of frowning and spitting. In contrast, another child may have the same threshold of responsiveness but a low intensity of reaction may just crumple his nose in dislike.
Persistence - Attention Span
This describes of how long a child with stay at any given activity. For example, one child might stay at a puzzle until he solves the puzzle while another might give up on the game after only a few minutes and throw up her hands in frustration (Thompson; Connell; Bridges, 1988).
Distractibility:
The characteristics distractibility refers to how much or how less unrelated motivation is required in order to intervene with an ongoing activity. For instance, the same child who will play with the puzzle game for 30 minutes, before losing interest may not be able to play for much longer time if he is being put in a room with many other ongoing activities. In contrast, another child might sit in a chair reading his favorite book despite how many times he has been called out for the dinner...
This helps parents to value his child positive traits and at the same time identify and control the negative labels such as "cry baby" or "worry wart" or "lazy." For instance, the child who persists at dismantling the toaster oven may one day apply this same trait in solving her math homework.
References
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (1995). Child maltreatment and attachment organization: implications for intervention. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir and J. Kerr (Eds.). Attachment theory: Social, developmental and clinical perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Fox, N., Kimmerly, N., & Schafer, W. (1991). Attachment to mother/attachment to father: A meta-analysis. Child Development.
Goldsmith, H., & Alansky, a. (1987). Maternal and infant temperamental predictors of attachment: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
Seifer, R., Schiller, M., Sameroff, a., Resnick, S., & Riordan, K. (1996). Attachment, maternal sensitivity, and infant temperament during the first year of life. Developmental Psychology.
Thompson, R., Connell, J., & Bridges, L. (1988). Temperament, emotion, and social interactive behavior in the strange situation: A component process analysis of attachment system functioning. Child Development.
Child Temperament
