"Can My Child Be a Mix of the Types?"

On instagram I was asked the question, "Can my child be a mix of the types?" 
This is a great question to address. I know when I started researching this, I would run into the same question about myself. As I was learning and reading about the different types, I would see different parts of myself in them. I definitely identified the most with the Feeler, but I saw lots of the Helper, parts of the Thinker, and some of the Player.

I asked with my husband about this very thing. He has been studying personalities longer than me and I was hoping he would have some insight. Which he did. :) Sometimes we fall into the area of thinking that we can only be one of the types. In Dr. Keirsey's book he points out that we have a dominant type, but that we have parts of all of the personality types. So when I had seen myself in the other types, I wasn't wrong. I am definitely the most a Feeler, but I also have some of the others as well.

This is why we may not be 100% the definition of the type. We are different mixtures of the types. Think of a smoothie. If it has four ingredients, for example: strawberries, bananas, peaches, blueberries, we can combine those four in different ratios and get differing tastes using the same ingredients. More strawberries makes it taste more like strawberries, but you can still taste the bananas in there.

The other thing that we discussed is that we are born, genetically made, predisposed to one type. This doesn't mean that we will always be just as that type is described. I grew up in a family of mostly Helpers. I related so much to their type because parts of their personalities rubbed off on me. I saw things that were good and I wanted to try and have them in my life. Helpers are great with money management and preparation; that was something that I learned.

We also have experiences and are able to change parts about ourselves that we may not like. We are aware of our faults or things that we would like to change and we work at those. I know someone who is a Helper type and the Helper type is predisposed to worry and pessimism. She has worked very hard to look optimistically at things. Her first inclination might be to think of pessimistically, but she changes it very quickly and is very optimistic now. This is just one example.

So how does this relate to our kids and teaching?
It is important to know that our children are these different mixtures. This is where we can make sure that we are teaching to the ways that they learn best, but also introducing them to other ways of learning. They might discover something new that they like and are able to learn through. This is why on my template I have all four sections on there and encourage you when you are planning to try to reach the different types in your lessons. Having the crossover of teaching ideas and techniques will help you to reach your children how they learn best and letting them experience other ways that may work for them.