How to Help Children Cope With All Types of Emotions
Emotions can often get the best of us all. However, sometimes being a child is even harder than being an adult when it comes to expressing emotions. Whether your child feels happy or sad, acknowledging these emotions is vital to helping your child appropriately target and deal with personal feelings. Simply talking to your child and building a trusting bond helps enormously with learning how to deal with emotions.
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Instructions
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Talk to your children about how he feels. When a situation occurs, whether it is good or bad, talk to your child. Ask how he feels about the situation and why he feels that way. For example, if your child is embarrassed about something that happened in school, ask him why he feels embarrassed. Talking about emotions tells the child that feeling emotions is a natural part of life.
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Come up with a solution to problems. Get together with your child and come up with a solution to problems that involve emotions such as embarrassment, anger or sadness. Coming up with solutions helps your child work through the emotion. Solutions also help the child understand appropriate and inappropriate approaches to situations. For example, if a child becomes angry over another child taking away her toy, sit the child down and talk about how she can get over the situation and why she should not approach the situation with anger.
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Place a piece of paper and colored pencils in front of your child. Tell the child to draw a picture that depicts how he feels. Drawings give you something physical to refer to when you discuss emotions with your child. Break down the picture with your child and open up a discussion about the particular situation depicted or similar situations. This exercise also includes discussing situations that make the child happy, as well as situations that make him upset.
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Share a personal experience that speaks to the emotions the child feels. Opening up and sharing an experience draws the child closer to you and makes her feel more comfortable about sharing her emotions with you. Allow the child to ask questions about your story. Answer the questions honestly. While honest answers may not be the easiest answers, you build trust between you and the child.
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Give the child a journal or diary and tell him to write in it everyday or when he feels a certain way. Writing down how he feels helps pinpoint feelings and situations that conjure up certain emotions. Tell the child that the thoughts in his journal remain private unless he feels like sharing.
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Tips & Warnings
Always listen to the child when she talks about how she feels. Keep an open mind and reserve opinions or advice for after the child finishes speaking.
Never ignore a child or cut him off as he speaks. Let the child talk openly about his emotions.
References
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