Meet Robin: a cautious, slow-to-warm baby. New things make Robin freeze and cling. You cannot change that wiring. You are the parent. What you do next is up to you.
Confidenceuneasy
Age 2
Age 25
Illustrative. The pattern is real: for inhibited children, warm, gradual encouragement to approach helps, while both harsh pushing and overprotection raise the risk of anxiety (goodness of fit, Thomas and Chess, 1977). Behavioural inhibition raises the odds of an anxiety disorder, but roughly half of inhibited children never develop one (Clauss and Blackford, 2012).