From sadness to anger, to embarrassment, to happiness and frustration, children, even at a young age, are already acquainted with the same emotions that adults do. In spite of this, they oftentimes don’t have the words to express properly how they feel. More often than not, they express their emotions through their actions, which might not always be appropriate. For instance, they may hit out of frustration, bite, or have a difficult time calming down after an exciting day at a Montessori school in California.
While these circumstances can be frustrating, they all form part of your youngsters’ early education when it comes to identifying what they feel and improving their emotional development. Kids get more frustrated when they cannot make you understand how they feel. So, the first step you should take is to help your children identify why they are feeling the way they feel. As early as eighteen months, you can already educate them on how to verbalize their feelings.
Why not use the following strategies from Anaheim Hills Montessori School, your premier children’s Montessori center in Anaheim, California, to help your kids express their feelings?
- Practice
Talk about feelings when eating dinner, riding in the car, or playing games. The more opportunities there are for them to practice, the quicker they get to learn.
- Make use of words and illustrations
Try to ask them how they feel by using easy words that they can understand. Picture books, for example, can help kids learn to recognise others’ emotions and facial expressions.
- Name the feeling
This involves giving labels to what they are possibly feeling. By doing so, you help them to develop an emotional vocabulary which enables them to talk more about their emotions.
- Identify the feelings in their surroundings
Discussing the feelings of the people around them can help your kids identify these emotions for when they themselves experience them.
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