Talking About Feelings

Emotional literacy – the ability to understand, express and manage individual emotions as well as the ability to understand and respond to the emotions of others – is a central part of a child’s social development and provide a foundation for positive personal friendships.

Learning to notice and understand the emotions of others is a core part of social development.

Reading the emotional ‘clues’ to get a sense of how other people are feeling and responding to them

allows children to relate appropriately to others. This is the foundation for developing friendships.

We can help support the emotional development every day by teaching children an emotional vocabulary, and providing an example of how they manage their own emotions and respond to other people.

Students with well-developed emotional literacy find it easier to manage themselves, relate to others, develop resilience and a sense of self-worth, resolve conflict, engage in teamwork and feel positive about themselves and the world around them.

Emotional literacy enables positive interpersonal relationships, is the basis of loving connections

between people and facilitates a sense of community. As children become emotionally literate, they learn to identify and handle emotions in a way that improves their wellbeing and quality of life.

 The benefits include:

• enhanced positive mental health, resilience and engagement

• more positive social behaviour

• decreased disruptive behaviour

• measurable improvements in academic learning.

As children are still developing their language skills role modelling, emojis and singing games can be an effective way to start learning about the range of emotions we experience. 

Self-awareness- Recognise and identify their own emotions

• Using emojis
  • Look at the emojis (short list) and name them.
  • Find the opposite emotion/emoji
  • What sound goes with this emoji?
• Making different emotional faces/Memory game 

• My day: talk about what is happening and the related feelings 

Self-management – Recognise and identify how their emotions influence the way they feel and act

• This is how I feel allows discussion about emotions and what a child might like to do about

their feelings

• ‘If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands’ innovation on lyrics by substituting

different emotions and ways of managing them

Social- awareness – Show an awareness for the feelings, needs and interests of others

Match face of real child (e.g. from a magazine/photo) with emoji

• Emotion charades, a child ‘acts’ the emotion they select for others to guess
• While listening to a story or looking at picture books, let the child determine what emotions the character is feeling. (Adult could prompt: What is happening? What do you think he/she would be feeling?’ ‘How can you tell?)

Emotional literacy is an aspect of Personal and Social Capability in the Australian Curriculum. By becoming involved in a range of practices including recognising and regulating emotions, developing empathy for others little learners are being set up to build positive relationships, be a part of a team and handle challenging situations constructively.

Source:
adapted from https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/resource/early-childhood-to-year-2/Documents/Allen_learns_about_feelings.pd