Strategies to Help Young Children Understand Emotions
Marion Hyson presents some good, practical techniques in her book The Emotional Development of Young Children.
- Provide daily activities that prompt children to think about emotions. Promote pretend play. Share emotion-rich books. Weave creative arts throughout the curriculum.
- Smile, look interested, look sad: Show your own feelings and mirror children’s own expressions of emotions. Engage babies in “imitation games.” Let children see that their own expressions influence others’ reactions.
- Respond to what children are feeling. Tune in to children’s faces, bodies, and voices. Use this information to construct prompt, sensitive appropriate responses.
- Name children’s feelings. Give words to what children experience emotionally. Connect the emotion labels that you use with children’s cultures.
- Talk about the causes of feelings. Help children connect the way they feel with what made them feel that way. Use these conversations to build children’s ability to see others’ point of view.
In this post, a prekindergarten teacher talks about how she deals with strong emotions at the end of the year.
