Acknowledging Emotions: The Key to Your Child’s Heart

Children are not simply small-sized adults. They are, however, human. They have their own emotions and they see things from their own perspective, which is completely separate from the adults surrounding them.

As humans, they have the basic need of having their feelings acknowledged in order to validate their self-worth and to realize that they do matter in this world.Key to Your Child's Heart

What is that emotion? It takes time for young children to learn the subtle differences between emotions. At first, anger and frustration may feel the same. As adults, we can help our children learn to identify their emotions and put words to what they are feeling inside. Don’t assume you know how your child is feeling. It may appear as one emotion, but might be another. Hence, ask and try to determine this.

For example, your child appears angry when she is practicing learning to tie her shoes. You can ask her something like “Does that make you angry?” or “You seem frustrated. Are you?” This not only puts a name on the possible emotion, but it allows your child to feel that someone noticed the emotion. This allows him to know it is okay to express his feelings and he isn’t “bad” for feeling angry or frustrated. It also gives you a chance to help him learn appropriate ways of dealing with those emotions.

Empathy By letting your child know that you notice what she is feeling and you understand why, you open the door for learning to deal with emotions in a positive way. When a child feels that his feelings matter, his self-esteem increases. By developing this empathy, you put yourself in the position to be of help and be a positive role model. This helps them be open to learning and it helps them to understand that it is okay to feel negative emotions.

About Pacific Preschool & Kindergarten

Pacific PreSchool & Kindergarten is one-of-a-kind preschool and child care center in San Marcos, California. Their goal is to provide an early childhood education program to little children so that it satisfies their physical, socio-emotional and child development needs in a progressive way. Lynda Way, the owner of Pacific PreSchool & Kindergarten, makes use of her 40 years of professional knowledge in childhood development and truly loves what she does.

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