As parents, or smartsitters , it can sometimes be complicated to understand children’s emotions. However, you should also know that managing emotions is also difficult for children themselves! Thus, Smartsitting helps you teach your child to manage their emotions.
The benefits of knowing how to manage your emotions
Anger, joy, sadness, jealousy, what is the point of teaching children to put words to what they feel? Managing emotions is crucial for the child’s well-being and development. Indeed, the benefits are as follows:
Better reaction to different life events.
As you will have understood, it is very important that the child learns to manage his emotions to promote his socialization process.
Putting words on what he feels
The first step in teaching your child to manage their emotions is to help them recognize their emotions. This involves:
Teaching children about emotions from a young age.
Explaining the role of emotions. For example: “ You didn’t listen to me because I refused to buy you that toy .” This is a feeling of frustration in the child, which you can explain to him.
The association of emotions with body language. For example: smiling when you are happy.
Encouragement to describe the emotions he feels in different everyday situations.
Our advice
Now, Smartsitting gives you its best advice for teaching children to manage their emotions. These tips should be adapted according to age.
Allow emotion
It is important to allow the child’s emotion. In this sense, this can be done through discussion and a moment of tenderness.
Discussion is a key element in teaching children to manage their emotions. Indeed, it will allow them to understand that they could certainly have reacted differently. This will encourage them to learn another way of doing things in the event of a similar emotion.
In addition, a moment of tenderness and affection is probably more effective than punishment. For example, a hug will allow the child to release the emotion and calm the situation. This advice is linked to the previous one since it will lead to a discussion with him.
Let him express his emotional overload
Even though it is important to allow emotion, it is also interesting to let the child discharge his emotions. To do this, give him outlets when an emotional overload occurs. This can be, for example, hitting a cushion, letting him express his anger by shouting, etc. This is a very effective way since it allows the child to say goodbye to this emotion.
Learning through reading
To teach your child to manage their emotions, Smartsitting advises you to make them read! Indeed, they will certainly be able to recognize themselves in certain situations, understand why they can act like that and name their emotions. So, here is our team’s selection, adapted to different ages:
The ABCs of Emotions
Here are the different tips from Smartsitting to teach children to manage their emotions. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences and suggestions with us. We would be delighted to know how you feel about children’s emotions!
