Identifying and Regulating Emotions
By this age, children are interacting with more and more children, and are learning new things everyday!
When unexpected events occur, and kids don’t know what to do, it is common for them to experience some powerful emotions like frustration, self-doubt, or shame.
- It can be difficult to hear and see children when they are upset or frustrated, but they need to know that it’s okay to be upset. Responding to frustration with “I know it’s hard to wait your turn” or “I’m so sorry things didn’t work out the way you wanted” can help them come up with ways to understand the situation and feel better!
Help your child process big emotions.
Feeling upset can be overwhelming, and they can disrupt your child’s ability to think clearly. Teach your children that feelings come and go. We can’t choose our feelings, but we can decide what we will do with them.
- Children (and grown ups!) need to think clearly in order to come up with reasonable solutions to problems. Have them take deep breaths, and think about different ways to solve an issue. When your child can tolerate “big” feelings, they increase their ability to handle emotions, and can solve any problem they encounter.