How to teach children to name emotions
The emotions They influence our way of relating to the world a lot. They are vehicles to know and act, as well as to approach others and interact with them. Educating in emotional intelligence is essential in the family educational project and for this it is essential to help our children identify and know their own emotions and how their manifestation should be in their own lives.
Name our emotions
In the first place, we must teach children to recognize that emotions are neither good nor bad, they are spontaneous manifestations of our being and we must accept them as such. Children have to learn to recognize the emotions they are feeling, to name them and above all to know that they do not govern our will or our actions.
There are different techniques that allow our children to gorecognizing what they are feeling and can name them. We can for example ask them how they feel, where in the body they are feeling that emotion, and they could also put a color to identify them. They are all ways of teaching children to come in contact with themselves to recognize what goes on inside.
It is important that as they grow up, our children are able to Communicate with sincerity and clarity what happens to them. It is very beneficial for a teenager to explain that he is tired, angry, disappointed or nostalgic. Is identification of emotions It will allow us to feel empathy for what is happening and respect their spaces and times in the family routine.
Do not let emotion take control
There is a clear difference between feeling something and letting feeling take control of your actions. We can tell you then that it is normal to feel anger, sadness or anger and that we must accept that in many moments in life we will have these emotions, however, we can not let the outburst take control and we move away from our way of being, reacting only with emotion.
Exercise this self-control it will be more difficult for some than for others, everything depends on the personality of each child. However, there are ways to teach them to take control: pauses, count to 10, breathe deeply or get away from the situation they are all techniques that allow them to take a moment to assess those emotions and be able to manifest them without losing control.
Avoid suppressing emotions
While we are teaching to recognize emotions and to manage them, it is crucial to understand that expressions that make them repress these emotions are very harmful. Phrases like: "You do not have to be sad" or "Children do not cry" they only manage to get these emotions repressed inside and may manifest themselves in other, more damaging ways in the future.
They are much more beneficial phrases that show acceptance to their emotions or feelings and that help them channel these manifestations.
It is also important that our children see in us a positive example of control and management of emotions. If we frequently scream, or let ourselves be carried away by emotional outbursts in front of our children, we are modeling in them a behavior of lack of control and we are throwing away any type of education in self-control
It is essential that our children feel that we accompany them in their emotions, that we can also experience sensations like the ones they are feeling at that moment and that, whatever happens, their parents will always be there for them: to guide or welcome them in any situation however difficult it may be.
María Verónica Degwitz. Master of Science in Family Sciences and author of the blog In the living room of my house.
