Temperament: Approach-Withdrawal, Threshold Of

One last theory that relates to my field experience this semester is Temperament. Temperament is the how of behavior and it is hereditary, neural, has hormonal factors, and is biologically based (Horner, 2015b.) Within the temperament theory, there are 9 dimensions: Activity, Rhythmicity, Approach-Withdrawal, Threshold of Responsiveness, Intensity, Mood, Distractibility, and Persistence. Each temperament then lies on a continuum, which goes from high, to medium, then low. Depending on the situation, a person’s temperament could be on either of those three.
Activity level is the motor component present in a given child’s functioning and the proportion of active and inactive periods (Horner, 2015b.) For this theory, I am going to focus on Student
Distractibility is the effectiveness of extraneous environmental stimuli in interfering with or in altering the direction of the ongoing behavior (Horner, 2015c). Although Student T can often get loud and talk to others when he shouldn’t, he does best on his work when he is in a quiet environment. Sometimes I will take him out to the hallway to help him with his reading. When I first started reading with him, I called him over to sit at a desk with me in the classroom. When he got to me he said, “Can we go out in the hallway to read? It’s too loud in here.” Out in the hallway, he did a bizarre job with his reading. Since Student T does best in a quiet environment, this would place him on the low end of the continuum. If he was toward the higher end that would mean that he works best in a loud environment, which is not the
This dimension relates to Student T the best out of the other eight dimensions. When the teacher has the students do an in-class activity such as an addition and subtraction worksheet, Student T is often one of the first to get out a pencil and start the activity. After a few minutes goes by, he is daydreaming, doodling on his paper, or putting his head down on his desk. His work is always just partially done. When doing activities and assignments in the classroom, it seems that he has a hard time staying focused and he gives up pretty quickly. I would place Student T in the middle of the continuum because he has a medium focus. He doesn’t have a strong focus because after time he gives up and he doesn’t have a poor focus because he is very focused when he starts the activity or