Identifying Children's Personal Development

Temperament

• According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), on its Healthy Children website, children have different temperaments that make it easier, or more difficult, for them to adapt to new situations or their environment. Temperament includes basic personal characteristics such as activity level, ease of adaptability, ability to approach, withdrawal, distractibility, mood and sensory threshold. When identifying your child's personal development, in terms of temperament, looking at these characteristics in reference to how he interacts with others and how he enters new situations can help you to prepare him for changes, starting school or meeting friends.

Shyness

• The ways in which your child interacts with others can give you cues as to how her personal skills are developing. Social development will dictate how your little one enters new environments -- such as the first day of school -- as well as interacting with other kids. Some children may have a more outgoing style, while others may seem on the shy end of the social spectrum. The pediatric pros at the KidsHealth website note that shyness is a trait that some children are simply born with, while others may learn this characteristic from watching others or through negative experiences. If your child is shy, her socially-charged personal skills may seem to lack in comparison with a more outgoing kid. For example, your shy 5-year-old may not talk to as many kids on her first day of kindergarten or make as many new friends as your BFF's exuberant child. This doesn't mean that she is socially stunted, but instead that you need to identify how and when she is acting shy in order to help her feel more comfortable in social situations.

Communication

• The ability to communicate is a key personal skill that your child will develop as he ages. Identifying your child's communication development means having to take an age-graded approach to reviewing his abilities. Instead of expecting that your toddler will have top-notch interpersonal skills, keep in mind that he is still in the beginning stages of developing his communication ability. For example, 12-month-olds can communicate by using simple words like "dada" and through gestures like pointing, while a 3-year-old can use an array of words and create multiple-word sentences. As your child moves into the preschool years, you can expect her increased vocabulary and growing ability to put together sentences to help her with communication and building interpersonal relationships.

Self-Esteem

• When identifying your child's personal development, understanding his growing sense of self-esteem can help you to better help him build new skills in the social and emotional areas. The AAP notes that when building a healthy sense of self-esteem, your child must feel secure about who he is, have a sense of purpose, feel like he contributes -- to his family, at school or in another activity -- and feel pride. Developing self-esteem also means accepting mistakes and overcoming them as a means to learn and develop new skills. For example, a confident child who has high self-esteem may miss when he tries to hit the baseball the first time, but he will learn from this mishap without feeling shameful or bad about himself. You can identify your child's self-esteem by watching how he handles situations and how he talks about himself. A child who gets angry or sad in the face of a challenge or says that he's "never going to get it right" shows a poor sense of self-esteem.