Parents raising young children want to equip them with the knowledge and habits needed to become successful, happy, and healthy adults living fulfilling lives. With that in mind, it’s important for parents to help children develop emotional resilience and confidence.
Emotional intelligence means having the capacity to observe and name emotions. This is no small task for adults, let alone young children whose brains are still in the early stages of development.
So how can parents help their children understand their emotions? Fortunately, there are many social-emotional learning activities that can be seamlessly incorporated into your family’s routine. Below are four activities to help increase your child’s emotional intelligence:
1. Support Unstructured Play
Giving children the time and space for creative and unstructured play has been associated with greater emotional resiliency and emotional regulation. Make sure your child gets plenty of time to make up their own games and engage with their peers. In particular, imaginative play or play that is imitative of daily tasks allows children the space to “try out” emotions in different settings. This type of play can lead to increased social-emotional skills and enhance problem-solving skills too!
2. Name Emotions
The stories told through children’s books, television shows, and movies can be a wonderful opportunity to practice naming emotions with your child. Next time you’re watching your child’s favorite show together, ask your child questions such as, “How do you think Bluey is feeling now that she lost her favorite toy?” Try to ask open-ended questions to give your child a chance to name the feeling. You can prompt your child to take notice of the character’s facial expressions, words, body language, and even the colors used in telling the story.
3. Practice Mindfulness
There are many ways to easily incorporate mindfulness into your child’s daily routine. At its root, mindfulness is about being aware of the world around you. Children are naturally adept at mindfulness because they don’t yet have a fully developed prefrontal cortex. Consequently, experiences are more immediate and immersive for children than they are for adults. If you see your child deeply focused on an activity like building with blocks, putting together a puzzle, watching a musician play, or happily enjoying a favorite snack, they’re experiencing mindfulness. You can prolong and enhance these mindful moments by allowing your child to stay in this focused or happy moment for a bit of time. Mindfulness can help promote patience in young children and support a habit of centering on the present and ignoring distractions.
4. Create a Cozy Corner
Grounding activities or cozy corners can also help your child enter a mindful, relaxed, and restful state. If your toddler is craving some calm, you can create a corner of a room with soft pillows, stuffed animals, blankets, favorite toys, books, and even photos of family members. In this special spot, children can use comforting objects and activities to help them reach a calmer state of mind. You can even include a picture or book of emotions to help your child identify how they’re feeling.
The Gardner School Supports Learning in All Forms
As with all new skills, emotional intelligence is established through consistency and practice. Little by little, your child will begin to learn how to name their emotions and to treat themselves and others with compassion and empathy. Partnering with a preschool that understands and prioritizes social-emotional learning is key. Our nurturing teachers meet students where they are to help foster their growth. To learn why parents choose The Gardner School to help their children to grow and learn, contact us to learn more or to schedule a virtual tour.