How to Teach Kids About Feelings

Kids are infamous for showing emotion, but not necessarily for understanding it. It’s important that you teach your kids about feelings and emotions so they can understand why they feel the way they do. It’s also important that kids understand that they have the power to hurt other people’s feelings through the things that they say and do.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Use photograph cards or magazine pictures that show a variety of feelings. Kids don’t always realize the range of emotions people have or how to recognize them. Make sure you choose feelings beyond happy, mad and sad. Use pictures that show fear, delight, disappointment, wonder and boredom.
2. Have a feelings face game. Take turns calling out a feeling and then making that feeling on your face. Show the different ranges a feeling can have such as mad, angry, furious and enraged.
3. Play a Simon says type game using feelings. Instead of directing kids to clap their hands, direct them to show sadness, anger, happiness, fear and other emotions using their face and actions.
4. Discuss the different types of words we use to describe feelings. Sometimes children feel more than sad, and they need the words that express this such as disappointed, miserable, confused or upset.
5. Talk about different things that have happened in their life that have caused different emotions. If kids can relate feelings to their personal life, it’s easier for them to understand how and why they feel a certain way.
6. Ask your child if their feelings have ever been hurt and why. Then teach them about different ways they can avoid hurting other people’s feelings and what to do if they do hurt someone else’s feelings. This is also a good time for a talk about coping with their feelings and moving on from hurt feelings.
7. Teach younger kids about feelings using songs and puppets. Little kids can also sort pictures of people showing different emotions into groups based on feelings. They can have a group for happy people, mad people, scared people and more.

Tips & Warnings

• Take advantage of a feelings talk to discuss the feeling of being uncomfortable. Teach your child that they should always come to you if something happens that makes them uncomfortable. Many kids avoid speaking to parents about bad things because they’re afraid of how they’ll react. If your child knows your feelings will be of love and compassion, they’re more likely to come to you if something bad happens to them.