Teaching your child how to identify and manage their emotions can be a daunting task. It’s one thing to teach them to brush their teeth or wash their hands, these are tangible things for a child. But learning to recognize, name and manage something you can not see and can only feel is something parents and teachers work hard to help children with every day. We’ve gathered some tools and tips from around the web that you can use to help your child manage their emotions.
Tools to Help Your Child Manage Their Emotions
Talking to your child about emotions and how to identify them, is a powerful step in helping them begin to manage what they’re feeling. Explaining that each feeling and emotion is normal is a starting point that allows a child to feel safe no matter what emotion is being exhibited.
PsychologyToday.com suggests books and tips for helping your child tell their story. Teaching them open up about the things that happen in their day and which emotions they felt can help them to understand and identify different emotions so that they can learn how to deal with them. Talking may seem difficult at first, but as your child recounts the details of what has upset or scared them, they will become more calm.
Huffington Post has put together a list to help parents of children with anxiety work through their fears. One of their tips is to actually reassure your child that worrying can be beneficial. Doing so takes away the worry that children can have that there is something wrong with them. Be sure to read the full article for more helpful tips.
Beyond talking with your child about their emotions, sensory outlets provide a very real way to calm down. Several visual and sensory tools have been developed and are easy to make for home or the classroom. Having some of these on hand for your child, can make difficult emotional periods become easier for everyone:
- A Calm Down Box - Dragonsanddragonflies.com suggests contents for putting together a Calm Down Box, which is a collection of objects that involve a variety of senses; touch, smell, sound, that help a child release their big emotions. Visit their site for some great ideas of things to include in your box.
- Calm Down Bottles - There are many ways to make these and the ingredients will depend on your own child’s preferences, but the concept is the slow-falling objects help a child calm down while focusing. You can find suggestions for colorful and calming bottles from The Primary Pack blog.
These are just a few of the suggestions that can be found on ways to help your child manage their emotions and we encourage you to explore what works best for you and your child. For more helpful ideas, visit our Pinterest board.
At Fusion Early Learning Preschool, we believe helping your child understand their whole being - physical, mental and emotional - is part of a child’s learning. Our goal is to help each child become a strong and healthy learner early in life and beyond!
Contact us to learn more about our programs or to schedule a tour: (530) 923-7208
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