"Do you know what you are?
You are a marvel. You are unique.
In all the years that have passed,
there has never been another child like you."
—Pablo Casals
Each child is unique, and has a different way of looking at and interacting with the world. Children have different talents that develop as they grow and practice them. If a child's natural talents are suppressed by a well-meaning adult, that child will develop self-doubt and may have a long, difficult road ahead of them overcoming that obstacle. As adults, we should recognize the children's different styles of learning and interacting, and promote the best possible development of their natural strengths and weaknesses.
One very powerful way to encourage the optimal development of a child is to use the model of Psychological Type to better understand the child and ourselves. In order to fully benefit from this system, it's important for adults to understand their own personality type, as well as that of their children. We need to not only understand why our children act in certain ways, but also to understand why we have certain expectations of their behavior. It's equally important to remember not to box children into categories that may limit their development. Discovering your child's personality type will help you to understand them better, and to create environments for them that enhance their natural strengths. It should not be seen as a absolute predictor of behavior, or as a description of a child's limitations. There is no "best" or "worst" personality type. Individuals of all types have their own special gifts for the world.
This model is not intended for children with special mental challenges. There has not been sufficient research done to be able to understand how these special children fit into the Carl Jung's or Isabel Briggs Myers' personality types. This model works for children who are developing in a more or less normal fashion.
As children grow and learn and develop, their personalities take shape and begin to obviously influence their behaviors and attitudes. By the age 13, a child's baseline personality can be considered fairly set, and we can usually identify which of the sixteen "adult" personality types a teenager fits into. Prior to age 13, the child's auxiliary function is usually not developed sufficiently to be recognized. Accordingly, we can identify 3 out of 4 of the personality preferences for children aged 7-12. For younger children, we can identify 2 out of 4 of the preferences.
The children's aged 7-12 personality categories that we recognize coincide with the original personality types identified by Carl Jung, before the types were expanded upon by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers. They are as follows:
Which category does your child fit into? The Personality Questionnaire for Kids has been designed to determine a child's personality type. It is designed as an exercise for a parent (or close caregiver) and child to take together.
Now it's time to Take the Test and find out your child's personality type.
