Children feel many emotions. They feel angry when you take a toy away or make them nap. They feel excited on birthdays and special occasions. Most importantly to this article, they feel frustrated when they do not know how to express or manage these emotions. Children must develop methods for managing their emotions to build social-emotional skills like adults. In this article, we will explore how children express their feelings and ways to improve this expression more maturely.
Common Ways Preschoolers Express Their Emotions:
Around the ages of 3 to 4, a preschooler will likely:
- Use simple words to describe their feelings, like happy, sad, and angry
- Relate to other emotions on a base level
- Understand the concept of sharing- even if they do not do it all the time
- Show affection towards friends with hugs or thoughtful actions
Around the ages of 4 to 5, a preschooler will probably:
- Use words to describe more complicated emotions like frustration, excitement, and embarrassment
- Occasionally hide the truth- possibly saying they did not do something when they did
- Through fewer tantrums, because they can manage their anger and frustration better
- Feel anxious in unfamiliar environments
- Start to play better with others
By the age of 5, a preschool will likely:
- Continue to use more complicated words to describe their emotions
- Become more aware of others’ emotions and act on them- for example, asking if they can help if they see you frustrated
- Make an effort to follow the rules and avoid trouble
- Become more patient when waiting
Exploring Emotions with Preschoolers
Teaching Them to Identify Their Emotions
The first step in exploring emotions is being able to identify them. Here are some ideas for how you can practise how they can recognise emotions.
- Read: Children’s books are an excellent resource for learning. Many children’s books have storylines that teach social-emotional skills. Reading a book where they can relate to the main character’s emotions and see how they adequately express them is a great tool to help your child learn valuable emotion-management skills.
- Make a feelings check-in chart: You can easily make (or buy) a chart with various emojis showing different emotions. At other points throughout the day, have your child pick out the emotion they are feeling. You can add as many different emotions to the chart as you want and even change them out if your child is repeatedly picking the same one. This exercise will help your child pick out different words to describe how they are feeling and give you insight into your child’s mood.
Teaching Children How to Deal with Difficult Emotions
Identifying and labelling emotions is a great start. From here, you work with these more challenging emotions like anger, sadness, and frustration.
- Make a strategy chart: Sit down with your child and create a chart with two columns. In the first column right down common emotions, your child feels. These emotions could be jealousy, sadness, frustration, anger, or any other emotion they frequently struggle with. In the second column, list different strategies for dealing with emotions. Example strategies are listening to music, thinking of a happy memory, counting, or talking their situation out with a parent.
- Teach breathing techniques: Deep breathing helps to reduce stress and anxiety, making it an excellent tool for managing emotions. There are many free resources and videos online like this one that can help you practise breathing techniques with your preschoolers.
Incorporating Discussing Emotions in Daily Life
It is important to continue discussing feelings with your child daily to practise what they have learnt. Mealtimes are an excellent opportunity to discuss how different events throughout your child’s day made them feel. In the morning, discuss things you both are excited about in the upcoming day. Another excellent opportunity to practise discussing emotions is when you all are reading a book. Ask your child how various characters may feel throughout the story.
Find a Daycare Centre That Supports Your Child’s Emotional Development
In all these exercises, you will teach your child about emotions and what it looks like to express them healthily. Your child’s school must help to reinforce these lessons you are teaching them at home. At TLE, we actively teach our students how to express their emotions maturely and what their various emotions may be.
If you are looking for a daycare that will help teach your child about emotions in creative ways, contact The Learning Experience (TLE) Centre to find a location near you. Learn more about The Learning Experience in East Finchley here!
The Learning Experience- East Finchley Day Nursery and Preschool
250 East End Rd
London N2 8AU
020-8444-2638
https://thelearningexperience.co.uk/center/east-finchley/