How to Help Children Express Their Emotions

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Tips for Helping Your Child Navigation Their Emotions

Children feel all of the same feelings that we, as adults do. They experience happiness, sadness, anger, and all of the feelings in between. However, just like any other life lesson, children have to learn how to respond appropriately when they are feeling a certain way. Acting out their feelings can occur in a number of ways – tantrums, hitting, biting or other physical aggression. While you don’t want your child to ignore what they are feeling, you need to teach them to respond in a healthy way.

Identifying Emotions

Help children with their emotions by learning to identify what they are. If your child seems frustrated, you can say to them that you notice that when they can’t get the puzzle piece into the proper spot, they seem to be feeling frustrated or angry. Be sure to point out both negative and positive feelings when they occur.

Open-Up About Your Own Emotions

Discuss your own feelings with your children. When it is appropriate, point out to your children when you are feeling happy or aggravated. You can use literature to point out feelings the characters might be having based on what they are experiencing, as well as their facial expressions in the pictures.

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Help Them Learn How to Cope

Teach your children coping mechanisms. Having your child practice taking deep breaths, counting slowly to five, or other ways of reducing their level of frustration can be very beneficial. Asking for help is another way they can cope with their feelings of exasperation. If they are having a hard time doing something, asking for assistance is a great way for them to learn to solve a problem. As with any other life skill, practice makes better!

Encourage an Open Dialogue About Their Feelings

Talk about feelings they experience on a frequent basis during a downtime. Doing this in the midst of a tantrum is not recommended. Encourage your child to use his words. My youngest child is constantly touching the toys of his older brother and it drives him crazy! I try to take the time to remind big brother that because he gets so upset when his things are touched that he needs to put his special toys away. If his little brother does get into them, he needs to learn to control himself enough to solve the problem without acting with aggression. Discussing experiences (after they have calmed down) in a rational manner, and talking about choices they could have made in a different or better way will help them learn to react appropriately the next time. Be sure to model appropriate behavior yourself.
 
Helping our children learn how to cope and deal with their emotions, as well as validating them is very important. Teaching them how to express their feelings without physically or emotionally hurting others is a valuable life lesson. It will enable them to transition in new situations and respond appropriately to various events in their life.
 
 
Meet The Bella Behind the Blog: Kristen Farley is a mother of three and a domestic goddess. She is a former teacher who enjoys spending lots of time with her kids, healthy eating, volunteering at school, and mommy blogging for the masses.

Be on the lookout for more of Kristen’s expert advice and brilliant tips!

Author: Kristen Farley

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