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[MBTI General] can yo tell N vs S at a young age?

sculpting

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Jan 28, 2009
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4,148
General question:

How do you tell N vs S, especially at a young age? What will charecterize cleanly between the two types?

I Vs E is actually pretty easy to see in little ones and is a common aspect of the Big 5 test.

P vs J can be seen in the anal retentive OCD behaviors and need to pt things away that little Js have.

T vs F I think can be spotted by the sweet cuddly factor. All little ones cuddle but F babies are the cuddliest.

specifically I am observing my 20 month old as compared to a couple of other little ones his age and his older brother. The older brother was a pretty clean ENFP from a young age. Spastic, cuddly, emotional, and full of total nutty questions like why dont we eat holographic pigs.

The little one is totally different. Very reserved and standofish to strangers. Very skeptical and analytical and everything around him. He wants to take things apart and figure them out, which all kids do, but he has more focus than the rest of us combined. He is totally OCD. all jars mst have lids, all things have certain places they belong. He sweeps and vacuums already. He observes everything I do and tries to repeat. He has no probelm w direct piercing eye contact.

Most hysterically is his interaction w other ones his age. He hangs out a lot w another little one who appears to be ENTP like. Nonstop action adventure and lots of babbling chaos. The ENTP will sit and babbble and when it is my son's turn to talk he says "no". This could go on for 20 minute stretches. He looks at that kid like he is a total nutcase, crunches p his brow , and says no. no. no. no. no. no. INTJ or ISTJ?
 

Isy

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Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
16
MBTI Type
xNTP
Enneagram
5w4
20 months old? No, you cannot type a baby.

I agree, and I think all the Ts in here will think more or less the same. :D

Maybe, if we get extreme, when the baby starts to communicate actively you can begin thinking about it, but not before... or at least for the things that the baby learns first: that'll give you indications of how his premature mind may work... but I think at the moment you are just projecting your thoughts to, or trough, the baby ^^.
 

Erudur

New member
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
190
MBTI Type
INTJ
General question:

How do you tell N vs S, especially at a young age? What will charecterize cleanly between the two types?

I Vs E is actually pretty easy to see in little ones and is a common aspect of the Big 5 test.

P vs J can be seen in the anal retentive OCD behaviors and need to pt things away that little Js have.

T vs F I think can be spotted by the sweet cuddly factor. All little ones cuddle but F babies are the cuddliest.

specifically I am observing my 20 month old as compared to a couple of other little ones his age and his older brother. The older brother was a pretty clean ENFP from a young age. Spastic, cuddly, emotional, and full of total nutty questions like why dont we eat holographic pigs.

The little one is totally different. Very reserved and standofish to strangers. Very skeptical and analytical and everything around him. He wants to take things apart and figure them out, which all kids do, but he has more focus than the rest of us combined. He is totally OCD. all jars mst have lids, all things have certain places they belong. He sweeps and vacuums already. He observes everything I do and tries to repeat. He has no probelm w direct piercing eye contact.

Most hysterically is his interaction w other ones his age. He hangs out a lot w another little one who appears to be ENTP like. Nonstop action adventure and lots of babbling chaos. The ENTP will sit and babbble and when it is my son's turn to talk he says "no". This could go on for 20 minute stretches. He looks at that kid like he is a total nutcase, crunches p his brow , and says no. no. no. no. no. no. INTJ or ISTJ?

I think yes. yes. yes. yes. yes. yes. yes.
 

sculpting

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Jan 28, 2009
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sorry guys, even mainstream psychology admits personality diffs at very young ages. type em for good? of course not, but blank slates they are NOT.

babies commnicate starting at just a few months. it is just subtle. You can actually read up on this stuff in most parenting books-the active baby, the reserved baby, the shy baby, the OCD baby. By the time they are toddlers even before speech, they behave very distinctly. The introverted and extreoverted as well as P vs J (ie babies needing more structured envornments) are pretty standard things studied by child pshycologists.

There is also a whole chunk of kids that cannot handle itchy, tight, or overly textered clothing-little Ss in the making perhaps.

this is why a good ped can identify an autistic baby as early as nine months

do you guys have kids, or even better a cople of kids to compare? It might be more obvious that way.. Also as an NF maybe I just have a tuned antenna for this sort of thing.
 

sculpting

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Hey erider, I live in austin too!

what were youu like as a kid. I have lots of INTJ adult buddies but have not known and INTJ kids.
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
7,914
MBTI Type
INTP
I think he sounds ISTJ. But you said he's very analytical... does he look for wider patterns and discoveries in his environment or just focus mostly on his immediate environment? I'm sure there are some kind of baby play patterns that could be correlated to type, or at least future type.
 

Kasper

Diabolical
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
11,590
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
You can get a clearer picture if you look at the combination of letters as in SJ/SP/NT/NF.
 

Qre:us

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Nov 21, 2008
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4,890
Apparently, the difference between N and S sets in pretty early, compared to the other letters. But, I'm a bit skeptic about a 20 mths old.

My Ne was quite apparent early on, prolly the most apparent of my 'personality traits'. To this day, my mother reminds me that I was almost kicked out of 5th grade, for exercising my Ne+Ti anarchy a little too much, that most of my childhood report cards talk of me being 'restless', and I got 52 stitches on my face from 4 different 'accidents'/happenings (and nowhere else on my body - don't ask) to prove to myself, the craziness that Ne can lead to. Thankfully, as I've matured, the whirlwind has calmed (somewhat).
 

BlackCat

Shaman
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Nov 19, 2008
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7,038
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I think you can tell personality traits decently early on (like when they start talking) but not at 20 MO.

People will fluctuate a lot at a younger age though. I was an ENTP until I was 12... I really liked people and I loved to do all the NT type things like debate about logical stuff etc. A large amount of stress around family centered around me seems to have changed me though.
 

Erudur

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Dec 17, 2008
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190
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INTJ
I knew very early that I understood the big picture and could derive intuitive connections about things at a very young age.

I know this isn't a baby thing, but I read lots of fantasy books at a very early age -- Narnia stuff a few years before most, and multiple times. LOTR/Silmarillion a few years before most, and multiple times.

I am sure that I was making abstract connections very early. The "no. no. no..." comment sounds to me like a young one who sees a violation of the proper order of things. And I am guessing that INTJs are much more confident about that, and therefore more definite in expressing so, than perhaps an ISTJ.
 

Erudur

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INTJ
In 2nd grade, I noticed things like ass-kissing and patronizing comments from teachers -- and despised both.

I remember how easy it was to lie to adults because they assumed you weren't old enough to know better. And I remember making the choice not to do so because it was wrong.
 

FantailedWall

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Nov 25, 2008
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ENfP
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4w5
You could've told I was an ENFP from birth - seriously. I was two months premature, so eager to meet people and see the world LOL
Pity about that pesky breathing problem....born blue and had to have oxygen pumped into little ol' me.

I think that there are distinctive traits in children even as young as a year and a half, but you must keep in mind (as others have noted) that in early childhood, it's not uncommon for perceived 'type' to fluctuate and alter.

(I'd say ISTJ, based on what you've noted. It sounds as if his need for order is directed towards his external environment and not analytical thinking.)
 

INTJMom

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Sep 28, 2007
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5,413
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5w4
...
INTJ or ISTJ?
:smile: Yes.

I'm afraid the dominant function doesn't begin to develop until about age 6.
He may turn out either way.
I am an INTJ and I have an ISTJ daughter.
It's very hard to tell them apart when they're young.

However, my mother says that I used to help with the dusting and sweeping at a very young age,
and I used to copy my mother, also.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

Glowy Goopy Goodness
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Jul 11, 2007
Messages
3,376
MBTI Type
ENTP
It's hard to say whether I'm reading too much into it or not, but I already think my 7 month daughter is N. When I notice her around other babies she seems much more curious about her environment in that she looks around at everything. On the other hand the other babies seem more grabby than she is. They want to touch and hold everything around them, while she usually just needs one object. So to me that seems like an S/N difference, one type wanting to concretely touch and grab lots of things while the other type just wanting to take it all in visually and see what's going on.
 

tinkerbell

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I would say I was an I type in class and an e type at home as a kid....

I think S and N are easy to spot in kids... detail obsession is not a difficult thing surly... although it may be mixed up with J-ness

Lis
 
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