raukiya
Five tips you can use to improve a child’s emotional development and encourage them to express their feelings.
1. Respond to their emotional cues
Recognising and responding to emotions is a two-way process – if you want to teach children how to do it, read the cues they are sending out and respond as soon as you can. Remember not to invalidate or dismiss their feelings.
2. Help them express feelings in a positive way – even if this isn’t verbal
While we’ve discussed how important it is to express feelings verbally, sometimes this won’t be possible. In these cases, there are other ways that children can express themselves positively, such as having an outlet for the emotional energy – dancing, running, singing, or star jumps can be great for this, as can taking some deep breaths, or having time out to relax. Brainstorm strategies with the child when you can – what do they think might help?
In the classroom, strategies such as feelings boards (where each child places their name of a photograph of them into a different area of emotion on the board) and feelings scales (where you work with the child to develop a scale charting emotions from ‘one’ – calm and ready to learn – to ‘five’ – heightened negative emotions – and come up with strategies to help at each level) could help to get children thinking about how they feel and how to handle it.
3. Positively reinforce them
When the child expresses their feelings in an appropriate way, praise them. This shows them that feelings are normal and it’s OK to express them, but also reinforces that there is an appropriate way of doing so. The child will then be more likely to repeat the appropriate behaviour in the future.
4. Be approachable
Use open body language, friendly facial expressions, and kind words to show children that you’re there for them and open to what they have to say. Listen actively throughout conversations about feelings – don’t get distracted. Often, children only need to be heard and understood, and then they feel able to move past the problem.
5. Draw their attention to other children’s feelings
Young children aren’t aware of other people’s feelings in the same way that adults are – by drawing their attention to the fact that their actions can affect others, you can help them to make steps in their emotional development. If two children have an argument, listen to both perspectives, and discuss how both of them have needs and feelings that need to be resolved. Help to remind children of this consistently – for example, you might say: “Oh dear, Mo is sitting in the corner and he looks sad – why do you think he might be upset? Can you think of anything to do to make him feel better?”
