Emotions are at the core of the human experience, yet as parents, witnessing ‘negative’ emotions in our children like anger, fear, or sadness can be challenging. Addressing emotions in kids can trigger our responses, leaving us unsure how to navigate these situations effectively. Teaching children about their feelings is crucial for building resilience, but it’s a skill many adults weren’t taught. So, how can we empower our kids to talk about their emotions?
- Parenting Guidance: We play a crucial role in helping children name, express, and manage their emotions. Encouraging kids to understand that all emotions, even the ‘negative’ ones, are valuable signals can foster trust in themselves and enhance their emotional expression.
- Effective Communication: When your child displays strong emotions, start by acknowledging what you observe and validate their feelings. Offering support and connection through active listening can be more impactful than trying to fix the situation or distract them.
- Explicit Teaching: During calm moments, explicitly educate your child about emotions using daily experiences or shared interests like movies or books. Normalising emotions through fictional characters can help kids recognise and manage their feelings more effectively.
- Role Modelling: Children learn by observing, so model healthy emotional expression and conflict resolution. If you find yourself overwhelmed by your child’s emotions, consider taking a pause or seeking support.
Remember, emotions are contagious, and family dynamics play a significant role in how children perceive and manage emotions. By fostering a safe space for emotional expression, demonstrating healthy conflict resolution, and seeking evidence-based parenting programs, we can empower our children to navigate their emotions with resilience and understanding.
Teaching Children About Emotions: Building Resilience
Helping children understand and express their emotions is crucial for building resilience. Elizabeth Westrupp and Christiane Kehoe offer four effective strategies to guide parents in this important aspect of parenting.
Understanding Kids’ Emotions
Children experiencing “negative” emotions like anger, fear, or sadness can be challenging for parents. Recognising and addressing these emotions constructively is vital for fostering resilience in children. Research underscores four primary ways through which kids learn about emotions:
- Parenting Role: Parents play a significant role in helping children identify, express, and manage their emotions. Encouraging kids to acknowledge and talk about their feelings builds trust and emotional intelligence.
- Explicit Teaching: Having calm discussions about emotions when not in the midst of emotional outbursts helps children understand and normalise their feelings. Utilising everyday situations or media like movies (e.g., Inside Out) can facilitate these conversations.
- Observational Learning: Children observe and learn emotional expression and regulation from parental behaviour. Modelling healthy emotional responses helps children develop their emotional skills.
- Family Environment: Emotional contagion within the family impacts children profoundly. Parents demonstrating healthy conflict resolution and emotional expression contribute positively to a child’s emotional development.
Effective Strategies for Parents
1. Parenting Guidance on Emotions:
Parents should focus on helping children name and manage their emotions rather than suppressing them. Validating and empathising with a child’s feelings fosters trust and open communication.
2. Explicit Teaching:
Engage children in conversations about emotions during calm moments. Use relatable contexts like media or daily activities to discuss various emotional experiences.
3. Role Modelling:
Parents’ emotional behaviour serves as a powerful teaching tool for children. Demonstrating healthy emotional expression and coping mechanisms sets a positive example for kids.
4. Family Dynamics:
Creating a supportive and emotionally expressive family environment positively impacts children’s emotional well-being. Healthy conflict resolution models constructive ways to manage emotions.
Recommended Parenting Programs
For parents seeking additional support in teaching children about emotions, evidence-based parenting programs can be valuable resources:
- Tuning in to Kids/Teens: Focuses on enhancing emotional connections between parents and children across various age groups.
- Partners in Parenting: A program designed to assist parents in raising teenagers to prevent mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
- Circle of Security Parenting: Enhances parent-child attachment and child development in the early years (0-12 years).
Conclusion
Empowering children to understand, express, and manage their emotions is a crucial aspect of fostering resilience and emotional well-being. By utilising effective parenting strategies, promoting open communication, and modelling healthy emotional behaviours, parents can support children in navigating their emotional experiences and building resilience for the future.
| Key Points | Details |
|---|---|
| Our parenting role in helping kids with emotions | Parents play a crucial role in helping children name, express, and manage their emotions, teaching that all emotions are healthy and important for survival. |
| Explicit teaching about emotions | Parents can have calm discussions about emotions with kids, using various mediums like movies, books, or activities to normalise and educate about feelings. |
| Children learning from parental examples | Kids observe and learn from parental behaviour towards emotions, emphasising the importance of being good role models and expressing emotions in healthy ways. |
| Impact of family relationships on children’s emotions | Emotions are contagious, and children are influenced by relationships within the family, including how parents handle conflict and model healthy emotional expression. |
| Parenting Programs for teaching about emotions | Recommendations for evidence-based parenting programs like Tuning in to Kids/Teens, Partners in Parenting, and Circle of Security Parenting to assist parents in educating children about emotions. |
