Review: PeopleKeys

 I've always been fascinated by various "personality test" type things. I find it especially helpful now that I have children, to see how their brains work differently from my brain, and from each other.  So when we were given the chance to review the Children's Profile from PeopleKeys, it was right up my alley.

PeopleKeys offers the "DISC" test in various formats. DISC stands for "Determined Influencing Steadfast and Conscientious" the 4 personality styles in this system.

A few years ago, a group of us from our church, at the urging of a couple members who had seen great success in using the DISC tests in the workplace, took the DISC test, so I was familiar with the test and knew my "type" (though the full test that I took, gives a more complex answer than just which of the 4 styles matches you best).

We received the Children's Profile, intended for children age 9-13. This is a workbook. Ashlyn happened to be nearby, so she took the test first. Without a doubt, the description of her top to styles, described her to a T. As I was reading the discription, Lexie was rolling her eyes and groaning about the things that described Ashlyn to a T, and tend to annoy Lexie (like the fact that Ashlyn is slow and methodical about her school work, which annoys Lexie, who likes to rush through hers).

So, since we didn't have a second workbook for Lexie, we improvised, and I asked the questions verbally. The result, despite being IDENTICAL TWINS, Lexie and Ashlyn are EXACT OPPOSITES in the DISC system!!! Not only are their #1 styles different, but their secondary styles are also different. No WONDER they are at each other's throats some days!

While the test I took (I'm not sure which of the options they offer, I took), was quite complex, both taking the test, and scoring it, the Children's Profile one is wonderfully simple! The test is only one page long, and the scoring is simple enough for the students to do themselves. The rest of the workbook describes each of the 4 styles, what the child can work on, how to interact with other styles,  AND, for the parent, how to parent those styles. AWESOME!! Anything that helps me figure out how to handle these two, is something I NEED!  One thing I found frustrating, because the full version DISC test that I took awhile back, had a more complex scoring system, it's not intuitive or straight forward, at least for me, to see which "style" on the Children's Profile I am to compare to my children's types.  I could, obviously, retake the simplified test and figure out my type that way, but I have always struggled with "simple" personality tests, whether they're something like this or the silly little "what kind of pony are you" type quizzes that were so popular in teen magazines way back when I was a teen. Something about the way my brain works, if I can tell which answer will give which result, I have a really hard time not "cheating" and getting whatever result I think I am (or that I think I SHOULD be), in order to simplify this for young children, it is VERY straight-forward and easy to see which answers will give you which type, that didn't seem to bother my kids, perhaps because they've taken very few such tests AND because they're not me, so I don't see it as a negative for the test, given it's "target" audience, but it did keep me from wanting to try to take it myself. Instead I have been looking more at the general information of how each of my girls thinks and handles things, and skimmed how all types of parents can better interact with that type and pull the pieces I find useful.

The workbook is available for $15, but just buying that one workbook isn't going to do you much good. You really need to know what "style" all the members of your family are, because the most useful information is how the various styles interact with each other.

Other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed this, and several other products from PeopleKeys, click the banner below to see what they thought.

All prices are accurate at time of posting.