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No One Told Us

Episode 71: Temperament, "Livewire" Children, and Sleep Challenges with Macall Gordon

No One Told Us

Rachael Shepard-Ohta

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.9590 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode,, Rachael is joined by an expert to discuss one of her favorite topics- temperament and sleep. Macall Gordon is a sleep researcher and author, and today she and Rachael delve into the complexities of a little-known but hugely important factor when it comes to sleep, parenting, and more: Temperament. Specifically, Rachael and Macall discuss what Macall refers to as “Livewire” children- those who are more sensitive, more reactive, and in need of different supports particularly when it comes to sleep. Inside this game-changing episode: Macall shares her personal experiences with her 'livewire' child and discusses the importance of understanding different temperaments in your babies and children.  the signs of “high sensitivity”, the challenges of sleep for these children, and the limitations of traditional sleep training methods  the need for tailored approaches to parenting that consider a child's unique temperament and sensory processing needs. The realities of sleep training for babies and children, and what the research really says about it practical strategies for parents, including establishing consistent bedtime routines and recognizing the signs of overtiredness.  encouragement to exhausted parents, highlighting the non-intuitive nature of parenting and the need for self-compassion.  Macall has a B.S. in Human Biology from Stanford University and an M.A. in Applied Psychology from Antioch University, Seattle. She has conducted and presented research worldwide on sleep training advice, parenting, and the effect of temperament on sleep. She is also a certified Gentle Sleep Coach in private practice as well as with the women’s telehealth platform, Maven Clinic and has just published a book on sleep and temperament called "Why Won't You Sleep?! A Game-changing Approach for Exhausted Parents of Nonstop, Super Alert, Big Feeling Kids." She comes to this work because she had two of these children, and didn’t sleep for 18 years. Mentioned in this episode: Rachael's free sleep guides Rachael's next TEMPERAMENT + SLEEEP WORKSHOP is June 3! Sign up here http://www.littlelivewires.com  http://www.whywontyousleep.com Take the Temperament Quiz Macall’s new book on Amazon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Pst. Hey, it's A-O. Just letting you know you've not visited us yet. It's okay, things are busy.

0:06.7

But that Christmas list won't sort itself. TV's for a film fanatic, tablets for a gadget

0:12.4

whiz, or laptops for a super surfer, A.O's got it. Plus, with finance options available and delivery

0:19.0

to suit you, that's your Christmas list ticked off.

0:22.3

And you didn't even have to leave the house. Get your gifting sorted with A.O.com.

0:29.4

Welcome to No One Told Us, the podcast that tells the truth about parenting and talks about all the stuff you wish you knew before having kids.

0:40.4

Today I'm so excited to welcome McCall Gordon to speak on one of my very favorite topics of all time.

0:45.9

We're going to talk about temperament and sensitivity and sleep.

0:49.3

And McCall is such a wealth of knowledge in this field.

0:52.8

She has a master's degree in applied psychology from

0:55.4

Antioch with research-based specialization in infant mental health, sleep advice, and parenting

1:00.4

culture. She also has a bachelor's in human biology from Stanford, and she's a senior lecturer

1:06.1

in the graduate counseling psych program at Antioch. She has conducted and presented her own research on

1:12.4

temperament, sleep, and parenting advice at infant and child development conferences around

1:17.4

the world and has been a featured speaker at national sleep conferences. She also has a brand

1:22.5

new book out now called Why Won't You Sleep? And I'm so excited to talk with you about this. I know so many of my

1:30.3

listeners are going to feel very seen and heard at the end of this episode. So thank you so much for

1:35.2

joining and welcome. Oh, I'm just so excited to talk about this. Me too. So like I said in the

1:42.2

intro, this is definitely one of my favorite topics. I have a sensitive

1:45.0

or as you call it live wire child myself. And back seven years ago, there wasn't a lot of information

1:52.1

about this at all, at all. I had never heard of this. So I know that you kind of, you know, were

1:58.2

inspired by your own life and your own parenthood journey as well.

...

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