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While the study of temperament and why people behave certain ways dates back to ancient times, in the late 1950s, Drs. Stella Chess, Alexander Thomas, and their associates published the first modern study on temperament. In their study, they identified nine different aspects of temperament that influence infant and child character. 

Sensitivity
How does your child respond to touch, taste, temperature, and smells?
A child who is highly sensitive may refuse to wear clothes that are scratchy or uncomfortable and may become cranky in warmer or cooler weather.  A child who is highly emotionally sensitive may be self-conscious and extremely concerned about other people's opinions and feelings.

Activity
How physically active is your child?
A child with a high activity level may be extremely boisterous, rowdy, or rambunctious, and may need to be shown how to channel this energy into a sport, game, or other activity.  A child with a low activity level may sometimes come off as being lazy, but this child may also need to be shown how to channel energy into less active tasks, such as painting, reading, or playing quiet games.

Intensity
How loud or dramatic is your child?
Some children will have more dominating personalities than others. One child will love to be the center of attention while others will shun the spotlight.

Rhythmicity/regularity
How predictable is your child's daily routine?
A highly regular child will be hungry at the same time each day and go to bed at the same time every night.  An irregular child may cry and wail at bedtime because she is not tired one night or may be over-tired the next night.  With a child on an irregular schedule, you will have to learn to be flexible as a parent, and you and your child may need to compromise occasionally.

Approach/withdrawal
How does your child respond to new people, places, and things?
A child with a high approachability level will love meeting strangers and going new places.  A less approachable child tends to be shyer and less openly out-going.  However, a highly approachable child may have a low adaptability level and therefore have trouble adjusting to big changes.  Moving to a new neighborhood or starting in a new school may make the child scared or cranky.

Adaptability
How easily does your child adjust to change?
Some children love change, new places, new people, and new situations. Others do not find change nearly as easy to deal with or accept.

Frustration/tolerance/persistence
How able is your child to stick to a task despite difficulties?
A child who is highly persistent will have no trouble focusing on homework or sticking to a task until it is finished.  However, if the child is highly distractible, focusing in a room with noise, people, or other disturbances may be more difficult.

Distractibility
How easily does your child become sidetracked?
Some children can start a task and stick to it to the end! Others can't sit still for 5 minutes and bounce from project to project, room to room.

Mood
What is your child's basic disposition?
The general mood of the child, although it can be influenced in certain ways, makes one child more openly happier or more content than another child who may seem quieter or more serious.

Temperament is neither good nor bad.
Temperament, like eye color or blood type, is neither good nor bad.  As a parent of a child who is highly active, loud, and has a low adaptability, this may be difficult to see sometimes.  Yet with each temperament trait there are both positive and challenging aspects to be found.  For instance:

• A highly active child may run around the house constantly, and may not enjoy playing video games or TV.  This child could also become a skilled athlete.
• Children with low approachability are often shy, but they are also cautious and think before doing.
• A highly persistent child may pressure you as a parent to back down on certain rules, but the child will often be an excellent and ambitious worker.
• An irregular child may grow up to work a job that only allows workers to eat and sleep as the situation permits.

Easy, slow to warm up, and difficult temperaments
In general, children’s temperaments fall into three overall categories:

• Easy temperament: this child has a regular schedule, a positive attitude, and an average intensity and activity level.
• Slow to warm up temperament: this child is shy, mild-mannered, and has more difficulty with changes, new people and new situations.  This child needs time to adapt, lots of positive encouragement, and patience. 
• Difficult temperament: this child is unpredictable, negative, and intense. Nurturing and caring for this child in a positive manner is extremely difficult.  While the child may not be able to change, your reaction to the child can change.  Parents must be flexible, accepting, and positive, even when the child is not.  Some children with difficult temperaments may have a disorder, such as ADD, ADHD, or a mood disorder, and should be checked by a doctor.  However, many children with difficult temperaments are very normal, healthy children.  They merely need to be accepted as they are and nurtured and loved like any other child.

Is everything about your child because of temperament?
No, not everything about your child is due to temperament, but almost every part of the way a child thinks and acts is influenced by it.  Stubbornness, perfectionism, fearful or fearlessness, forgetfulness, open affection, and spontaneity are aspects of personality that are influenced by temperament. However, thoughts, actions, and disposition are also influenced by your parenting style and the environment in which you raise your child.

If the characteristic in your child started before the age of four, it is likely linked to temperament.  If the behavior is hard to change, or if you did not teach your child to act that way, then that characteristic might also be related to temperament.