Has your child ever had difficulty coping with different tasks or been unable to share and communicate their needs? Children experience many and intense feelings in their daily lives, and it is often challenging for parents to find the best way to help manage these emotions. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to make your way into your growing child's emotional world to connect emotionally.
Developing emotional intelligence is basically about helping children learn about their emotions and begin to recognise and name them so that they can express them in an acceptable way in their behaviour.
There are numerous studies that show that children who are encouraged to recognise and express their emotions by their parents are more successful as adults in areas such as friendships, work and academic achievement.
Parents who help their children understand their own emotions and the emotions of others teach them to manage this process so that children can ultimately regulate their own emotions and behaviors in a positive way.
HOW DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE WORKS
Sometimes the approach to changing a child's behaviour fails to address the feelings behind that behaviour. Sometimes we forget that emotions are an important survival mechanism, nature's way of guiding us through life. They help us learn to trust our perceptions, determine our safety, understand our needs, and make sense of our experience. Emotions are meant to be felt, and acknowledging them is critical to our well-being.
People's attitudes toward emotions in general also affect their parenting role. They may love their children intensely, and yet continually reject or criticize feelings that they define as unacceptable, creating the possibility that their children will fail to develop an emotional connection with themselves and other important people in their lives. This is why emotional intelligence is so important because it supports healthy social and emotional development - in childhood and beyond.
FIVE STEPS TO DEVELOP EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
1. Be aware of your child's emotion
2. Recognize your child's expression of emotion as an ideal moment for intimacy and sharing
3. Listen with empathy and validate your child's feelings
4. Help your child learn to name their emotions with words
5. Set boundaries, children are entitled to any feelings but not any behaviour
