Children who understand their feelings have a way of coping with both positive and difficult situations. They feel more empathy for others and are better able to cooperate and to learn from them. Giving your child a vocabulary for his feelings sets the stage for a very deep level of learning.
Here are some ways you can help your child express his emotions:
- Help your child relate to his own feelings by identifying with them: “When I can’t find where a puzzle piece goes, I feel frustrated. Is that how you feel now?”
- You can help your child learn words that express emotions using a notebook that tracks the emotions he encounters in books, life, even on TV. Every time your child identifies an emotion, let him draw something that relates to the feeling he has felt.
- Help your child distinguish subtler shades of feelings by teaching the difference between being angry and being frustrated or disappointed. Showing your child examples of these emotional states in everyday life will help him understand them in others.
- Help your child develop a sense of pride in himself by focusing on his achievements, such as learning to comb his hair or write his name. Keep a chart of the things he has accomplished.
- Listen to music with your child, and talk about the emotions it raises in him. Identify music that sounds happy and cheerful or sad and lonely. Then, with simple rhythm instruments such as blocks, bells, or whistles, create different kinds of music: happy, sad, soft, loud, fast, slow.
