by Rev. Cliff Isaacson

Teaching can be challenging as children act out their birth order personalities. Find out what can be done to use birth order to your advantage in the classroom.

How Can Birth Order Help?

Birth order suggests certain strategies that can

• minimize negative behavior,
• encourage children to learn more effectively and
• create positive attitudes.

Understanding birth order may not be a top priority for busy teachers nor does it have to be. Some strategies based on birth order can be used without knowing the full extent of birth order personality. Of course, knowing birth order itself can enhance teacher/student relationships, communication and insights into behavior.

Effective Strategies

The following strategies can make a big difference in a classroom. Even though these can be used with the whole class, they are not one-size-fits-all. Each one of these applies to a different birth order. Students of other birth orders are affected little or not at all by strategies meant for one birth order so they can be used with the whole class. Each will take from it what he or she needs.

These strategies are as follows:

1. Only child: Be predictable
2. First born: Explain why
3. Second born: Give details
4. Third born: Show benefits
5. Fourth born: Issue challenges

Teacher Resistance

Teachers may find themselves resisting one or more of these strategies because of their own birth orders.

• Onlies may rely on organizing rather than motivating.
• First borns may expect children to do what they're told rather than informing them.
• Second borns may require the students to obey rules without question.
• Third borns may rely on motivating the children without challenging them.
• Fourth borns may expect children to figure things out for themselves.

Overcoming the Resistance

In order to employ these birth order strategies, the teacher can choose to use them despite personal discomfort. The rewards are worth it.

• Only child teachers can choose to challenge students.
• First born teachers can choose to stick with a time schedule to be predictable.
• The second born teacher can choose to explain why something should be learned.
• The third born teacher can choose to give details.
• The fourth born teacher can choose to inform students about the benefits of learning something.

The next five articles will explain these strategies in detail, why they are needed and what the results are likely to be. Birth order can make your work easier without forcing you to become expert in it. Of course, you might want to become skilled in birth order to make full use of it.

Related articles: The Fourth Born Personality, The Third Born Personality, The Second Born Personality, First Born Personality, The Only Child, Birth Order and School, Intro to Birth Order Plus

Cliff Isaacson

Upper Des Moines Counseling Center, Inc. 1-800-214-0795.

Visit Cliff's website for more information, Birth Order Plus

Cliff has authored several books on the topic: The Birth Order Effect: How to Better Understand Yourself and Others, The Birth Order Effect for Couples, How To Love Your Children: Birth Order For Parents, The Birth Order Challenge: Expanding Your Horizons, Look at it This Way: Reframing Life's Experiences, 112 Ways to Say What You Want, and Understanding Yourself Through Birth Order.

Copyright article 2006 Cliff Isaacson. All Rights Reserved.