How Far Do We Stretch The Rubberband?
Coaching Social & Emotional Skills To 3-6 Year Olds Contributed by: Dr. Steven Richfield (Posted on 2000-12-12) It is critical that coaching consider a child’s temperament. Temperament can be likened to a rubber band that has definite form but also stretches to some extent to accommodate what is being asked of it. The form of the rubber band symbolizes the inborn nature that our kids bring to the world, such as (1) how easy going vs. easily frustrated are they? Or (2) how much do they pursue challenge vs. recoil from it? These temperamental characteristics can be modified to some degree especially if the adults in their world don’t try to stretch kids too far. Just like rubber bands, some children can adjust to more stretching than others. One of the coaching tasks is to figure out how far we, as parents, can go in our expectations and attempts to help them adapt to a world that expects them to be pretty flexible. One example is the 4 year old who doesn’t get to sit next to his favorit
