4 Ways To Help Kids Understand Their Emotions

emotions can be very big and scary things when you’re a child, and not just for younger children. The emotional upheaval of adolescence can seem overwhelming as well. Helping kids identify, understand, and take ownership of their emotions does them a life-long favor.

Helping kids understand their emotions will help them know how to deal with situations that are difficult, it helps build their self-esteem and aids in children knowing how to control themselves. But how can you do this?

Here are 4 tips on how to help kids understand their emotions:

1. Give the Feelings Names

It’s amazing how often we adults forget that, for small children, emotions are nameless, scary things. We forget that they don’t always know what is happening to them in the middle of an emotional “moment”!

For toddlers and preschoolers, it helps to provide the words that go with the emotion. “Right now you are feeling angry,” you could say. This helps them understand what’s going on: “Anger – so that’s what that is!”

For older kids and teens, it might help to explain some of the changes they are going through and let them know that overwhelming emotions are normal for their age.

But don’t just stop there! Don’t just stop at helping your children know the words for their emotions but how to cope with them. If they are angry teach them how to cope with anger such as. Take 3 deeps breaths, dance the anger away, or help them talk through why they are angry.

Doing this step will help your children learn how to cope and get through their emotions instead of just bottling them inside.

2. Feelings Are Not “Wrong”

Sometimes, in our efforts to correct undesirable behavior, parents correct their kids for feeling a certain way. But no one can really control the way he or she feels about something; what we can control is how we act.

Try validating your child’s feelings – “I understand you feel frustrated, and it’s okay to feel frustrated,” while also correcting behavior – “You can feel frustrated, but you can’t throw things.” Then you can offer an alternative. “When you feel frustrated, scream into this pillow,” or “Punch the couch with your fist.” It’s important to provide an outlet and let your kids know what is acceptable behavior, not just what isn’t. This is a great way to help understand why your child is throwing a tantrum and help them understand their feelings when throwing a tantrum.

” When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.”

-l.r. knost

3. Talk about Your Own Feelings

Give your own feelings names, and do it verbally. You can say you feel angry, or really excited, or whatever emotion causes you to behave in a way that makes your kids take note. Hopefully, you can also model appropriate outlets for those feelings. If you drop the ball on this one, talk about it with your kids. Ask them how Mom/Dad could have handled the emotions better.

4. The Feelings of Others

As your child comes to understand the words that belong to the feelings and, for older kids, some of the reasons behind the big emotions, you can point out that behavior of theirs makes another person feel a certain way. And your kids will know what that feels like, and will likely want to stop whatever behavior makes the other person feel bad.

For instance, you could tell your child you understand she is angry, but she is causing her little brother to be very sad. Your daughter will understand what “sad” feels like and probably won’t want to keep making her little brother feel that way. This will help your kids in relationships later, too – empathizing with the emotions of others is important to have effective interpersonal relationships.

Be patient as you are to have your children to understand their feeling. If you are getting frustrated and start yelling that is not something that is going to help them understand what they are feeling. There are positive ways to discipline and teach emotions. Children watch and observe everything that you do as a parent that is why it is important to help children understand emotions and thoughts at an early age.