Children in their day to day are affected by intense emotions that they do not know how to express or manage. Parents in our work as educators can help children express their emotions.
Emotions and all that they entail are difficult for them to understand, something too abstract. Even for the elderly sometimes we get carried away by an intense emotion badly managed. If you We teach emotional education from a young age, how to recognize your emotions and those of others, we will be educating happier children.
What are the benefits of emotional education?
As we saw in our article Emotional Education: predictor of success in life, emotional education has countless benefits. Help children to have more self-control, to manage both their emotions and those of others, be more empathetic, ... In the article you will find more benefits.
We in our home can help children express their emotions with these simple tips.
Do not deny him his emotion
Culturally, we have a hard time accepting negative emotions. When we see someone cry, we automatically say "don't cry" or worse still, "big children don't cry." We feel uncomfortable, we feel sad too, and we don't know how to handle the situation.
All emotions are adaptive and necessary. If someone is sad, angry or angry (whether or not he has apparent reasons) we should not tell him not to cry or that he should not be like that. It is an emotion that is there for something, and denying it will not make it disappear, quite the contrary. If we minimize our sadness or look the other way, worse problems may appear due to not knowing how to face it, such as anxiety, depression or self-esteem problems.
Sadness or anger are there. Let's see what's behind it instead of denying it. We can ask questions like what has led you to be like this? How you feel? Teach him to verbalize how he feels, listen to him and respect his emotions. At first it will be difficult for him to verbalize it because he does not have a repertoire, but over time he will know how to express himself better.
Teach her coping strategies
We have already verbalized the emotion, now we must teach them strategies to cope with emotions. Through the stories and the gamesIt is a good way for them to learn to see the different ways of responding to a problem, and to choose the most correct one.
Respect their times
You may not feel like talking at that point, so don't question him. Let him know that you are there, give him a hug and cuddle. They will feel loved and protected, and when they feel calmer they will be more confident in communicating with you. Each child is a world and we must have patience. Do not demand a reason, or explain why it can make the situation worse.
If you still have a hard time verbalizing your emotions, you can use pictures to express yourself.
Set an example
It is also sometimes difficult for the elderly to know how to manage our emotions. It is necessary that we learn first and then teach it to the little ones. How to get it? Well, expressing our feelings in words instead of actions.
For example, if you have had a bad day at work instead of reacting in a bad way, you can calmly express how you feel, if there was something that made you feel bad and why. This will help your children first to know that we all have negative emotions., and second to express them in a correct way to feel better.
We also recommend that you watch the whole family together "Inside Out", where 5 characters represent the 5 basic emotions of the human being: joy, fear, anger, displeasure and sadness (surprise would be lacking, they have not added it to the film because it is a very short emotion that gives way to another). It is a very interesting film, a good way to graphically explain to children emotions, how memories and personalities are formed.
Why remember ... more is taught by example than with a thousand words.