A Literature Review Of The Behavioral And Academic Outcomes Attributed To INSIGHTS Into Children’s Temperament

In this paper, we examine the literature regarding Sandee McClowry’s social-emotional learning intervention, INSIGHTS Into Children’s Temperament. INSIGHTS focuses on promoting children’s, parents’, and teachers’ understanding of temperament, which is a biologically based, stable trait that influences the way individuals respond to their environments. By increasing their understanding and teaching participants about effective behavior management strategies, the intervention aims to improve the goodness of fit between children and their environments. INSIGHTS uses puppets, vignettes, discussions, and other methods to explain why certain children react to the same situations in different ways. Eight studies of INSIGHTS were conducted by its developer to evaluate different outcomes, among which were changes in children’s behaviors and academic achievement. The findings from the studies reviewed here demonstrate significant reductions in disruptive behaviors and increased academic achievement, specifically for boys and students with certain temperament types, such as high maintenance and shy children. These results support INSIGHTS’ potential to address and improve difficult behaviors and academic achievement in schools and at home.