AbstractOne of the concepts that guides much of special education is that the individual differences of each child must be taken into account in planning for, and carrying out, educational programs. To date, investigators have given the most attention to the individual difference variables of cognitive ability and achievement. It is my purpose in this article to introduce the reader to a set of child characteristics in the social, emotional, and attentional domains, collectively referred to as temperament characteristics, that have received significant and growing research attention over the past 20 years. I review the modest quantity of work relating temperament to educational process and outcome for exceptional children. Further, I summarize research aimed at the description of the temperamental characteristics of exceptional children with different diagnoses. I conclude with a model of temperament effects on educational outcome, mediated by effects on parents, peers, and teachers, with the child's academic self‐concept being a secondary mediating variable.