Feelings and emotions are a huge part of our life!
There are many different feelings, and we all experience a variety of emotions throughout the day.
The development of emotional intelligence can start at an early age. According to scientific studies, it’s common for 2-year-old children to recognize basic feelings such as happiness, anger, fear, surprise, and sadness. And with the right support, they can build on this foundation to understand even more complex emotions.
One of the first steps in helping your child learn how to manage emotions is simply teaching them what feelings are. Once they know how to recognize and name their emotions, they can begin to understand how to manage negative emotions, calm themselves in stressful situations, and react in healthy ways.
These emotional skills are important for every child and will guide them toward a happy, balanced, and emotionally healthy life.
We prepared simple and engaging material on how to guide them through this topic.
Here are some of the ways you can help your child learn about and express their feelings:
- Feelings trigger the behaviour- Try to understand your child’s behaviour. You can help your child find other ways to express the feeling when you know what is driving the behaviour.
- Name the feeling - Help your child name their feelings by giving them a label. Naming feelings will help kids to identify them, and develop an emotional vocabulary so they can discuss their feelings easily.
- Generalise it for them – Provide lots of opportunities to identify feelings in daily life with other people. Also, cartoons and books are great way to discuss feelings, and it helps kids learn how to recognise other people’s feelings to help them to learn and develop empathy.
- You are the best role model - Kids learn skills by watching others. Show your child how you’re feeling, verbalise it and explain how you deal with those feelings.
- Praise goes a long way - Praise your child when they talk about how they feel and when they express their feelings appropriately. It teaches them that feelings are a normal part of our life, and it’s ok to talk about them.
- Stay present - It's common to feel the need to make your child’s negative feelings and emotions go away. Instead, choose to support your child in this learning process. It cannot be easy, it is even tough for us as adults. But when feelings are neglected or dismissed, they most probably will be expressed in unhealthy ways.
Final Thoughts
Teaching kids how to manage their emotions doesn't happen overnight. It’s a process that begins with awareness and grows through patience, practice, and love. With the right tools and guidance, your child will learn what emotion management is, and how to handle feelings in healthy, confident ways—for life.