July 17, 2000

Parents need to recognize children's personality type
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___GLORIETA, N.M.--Parents can relate more effectively to their children by recognizing their distinct personality type and understanding the characteristics common to that personality, according to Martha Oldenburg.
___ Oldenburg, retired principal of a Fort Worth elementary school, led a seminar titled "This Can't Be My Child" during the Texas Baptist Family Reunion.
___ Using a series of tests and a list of characteristics, Oldenburg provide tools to help parents discover their own and their children's personality types. She identified four color-coded personalities:
___ Gold. The "sensing thinker" is realistic, practical, logical and objective. This person's reasoning process is concrete sequential. He or she is matter-of-fact, goal-oriented and efficient.
___ "The sensing thinker has a flaming sense of right and wrong," Oldenburg said. The "gold" person is a list-maker and a perfectionist. He or she also can have trouble choosing among several options or working without specific guidelines.
___ "Golds need to know they can trust others to do what they say," Oldenburg noted.
___ Blue. The "sensing feeler" is sociable, friendly and interpersonally oriented. This person's reasoning style is concrete random. He or she prefers to learn about things that directly affect people's lives.
___ "Blues love to be with other people. They love family and extended family," Oldenburg said. The "blue" child tends to be the "caretaker" and "nurturer" of friends. "They will talk to anyone or anything."
___ The "sensing feeler" may have trouble giving exact answers for fear of hurting someone's feelings, she noted. "Blues" have trouble memorizing, and they don't respond well to time limits. Unlike "golds" who prefer to complete one task before starting another, "blues" are efficient multi-taskers.
___ Green. The "intuitive thinker" is theoretical, intellectual, knowledge-oriented and interested in abstract ideas. He or she tends to be critical of self and others. This person's reasoning style is abstract sequential.
___ "Greens love to study and collect data," Oldenburg said. "They are problem solvers, but they love to analyze data more for the hunt itself than for the answer."
___ "Green" children need someone to dress them because they have no sense of things that go together aesthetically, she observed.
___ The "intuitive thinker" likes to work alone, has trouble with spontaneity and hates supervision.
___ Orange. The "intuitive feeler" is curious, insightful, imaginative and creative. This person's reasoning style is abstract random.
___ The "orange" child tends to love speed, variety, competition and outlets for creativity. The "orange" personality has no sense of time limits, has trouble keeping detailed notes, is very unorganized and can be impulsive or unpredictable.
___ "Ninety percent of high school dropouts are orange," Oldenburg observed.



Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!