Can your child confidently recognize and name their emotions? Can you? This blog can assist you in initiating the journey of teaching your child, ages 4 and up, to identify their feelings. This first step is crucial for both you and your child to develop skills in self-regulation and self-awareness.
Achieving a state of Zen or calmness requires the ability to navigate through our emotions. However, if we're unable to identify our emotions, this task can feel daunting. Mindfulness is a skill that requires practice—it's not a quick solution. Yet, I assure you, by initiating this practice, you'll observe a noticeable improvement in your child's ability to manage all emotions in all aspects of their lives.
Tips to Start:
Define/Name: name the emotions your child display’s regularly, and talk about it. See examples below.
Sad would be an emotion we feel low, we just don’t feel like ourselves.
Calm is when we are ready to learn and engage with our peers, parents, and teachers.
Nervous is when we are worrying about something and our body feels shaky, we have tummy-aches (butterflies in the stomach), or we can’t focus.
Angry is when we aren’t able to make good choices and all rational choices have gone out the window; aka we have "flipped our lid"
Sort the Emotion:
Utilize The Zones of Regulation™ Curriculum by Leah Kuypers (2011, ©Think Social Publishing), which categorizes emotions by colors (blue for low energy/sad/tired, green for ready to focus/content/comfortable, yellow for a little more energy/worried/nervous/excited, and red for explosive energy/angry/wild/mad).
Alternatively, you can assign emotions to numerical values (1, 2, 3, 4) or create a personalized system aligned with your child's interests.
The key is to assist your child in recognizing the category their emotion falls into, making it easier for them to communicate it to you. For instance, if your child feels sad and you've assigned a numerical label, they can express they're at a "1," allowing you to support them with a tailored strategy to navigate their emotions effectively.
I'm particularly fond of The Zones of Regulation™ because the colors provide a simple way to associate emotions, making it easier for children to comprehend how to manage and categorize their feelings.
Understanding our emotions is a complicated task. Zen Zone Mind’s blogs will help guide you and your child to a state of awareness. Clarifying your child’s emotions in addition to improving their self-regulation, self-awareness, and social cognition.
Recommended Books: These books are a great way to introduce feelings for younger kids. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Here are some helpful visuals to support your child learning the zones effectively.
Source: The Zones of Regulation Curriculum ® by Leah Kuypers 2011, © Think Social Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.socialthinking.com. Materials and images are not for public distribution.
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