Here are 5 Steps to Managing Big Emotions in Kids and nurture their emotional intelligence from a young age!
Some people say certain qualities in human beings can be learned and strengthened. At the same time, others claim it to be an inborn characteristic. Emotional intelligence is one of them. As the name suggests, emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and control emotions. It also relates to the ability to evaluate feelings and use them correctly. It’s beneficial to teach emotional intelligence from a young age so that kids can be comfortable sharing their emotional worries with people around them. By the time kids grow, if not emotionally nurtured, they tend to keep things to themselves and not open up. Here are 5 steps to managing big emotions in kids and how to make them comfortable around you.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence varies from person to person. An emotionally intelligent person knows how to invest emotions and understand what others expect. It is pretty essential to have the ability to control and express emotions in the correct quantity at the right place. It is equally important to understand and interpret the feelings of others so that you can respond to the situation.
There are various methods to measure the emotional intelligence of a person. Some of them are:
- Self-report Tests: These are the most common methods to measure a person’s emotional intelligence as they are the most convenient methods to administer and score a person.
- Ability Tests: There are specific ability tests available in the market that involve people who are required to respond to the situations, and their skills are assessed accordingly.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence
A high level of emotional intelligence can help you build better relationships, reduce stress, and reduce conflict. There are a few more areas where you are working on your emotional skills:
1. Self Awareness
Emotional intelligence is very much related to self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize what triggers one’s emotions, weaknesses, strengths, and even moral values and goals. For example, if you are having a bad day and feeling annoyed and uninspired, it is best to introspect about what and where something is going wrong. All you need to do is sit with yourself and ask, “AM I AWARE OF MYSELF?”
2. Self Management
When you become emotionally intelligent, you learn to manage yourself efficiently. If the situation becomes highly stressful for you, you choose to delay the response instead of making it aggressive. You either decide to sleep on that angry phone call or email or situation, or you do something that makes you relaxed.
3. Motivation
Motivation is something that provokes us to take action. When motivated by some achievement, we are more likely to ask for feedback and monitor their progress positively. In situations where we face setbacks and obstacles, motivation is a much-needed weapon that prevents us from expressing negative feelings about somebody or someone.
4. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to connect with a person emotionally and consider their feelings and concerns with a positive point of view. It is an essential skill to have as it enables us to anticipate the reaction and needs of others. Empathy is also suitable for harmony in a team.
5. Relationship Management
With the presence of emotional intelligence in a relationship, it becomes relatively easy to follow interpersonal skills and build genuine trust. Additionally, a person with relationship management and emotional intelligence is always capable of inspiring people and enhancing his performance and productivity.
5 Steps to Managing Big Emotions in Kids
When a teacher assesses the emotional stability of a student with the help of various activities in a classroom, it helps her to understand their behavior and current mindset to a great extent.
Here are a few methods a teacher or even a parent can follow to teach emotional intelligence to the kids.
1. Understanding various emotions
A teacher must plan her lessons in such a way that it includes understanding all six types of emotions. Different types of emotions are anger, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, and disgust. One example of such an activity is to plan a movie day for the kids and make them watch Inside Out by Disney. The movie not only illustrates the six emotions appropriately but is also a great source of introduction to memories for the brain.
Even parents can do this and watch the kids while they react to different emotions in the movie. At the end of the movie, ask your kids which emotion they liked the most and why. Besides, ask them to openly share their thoughts on each emotion.
2. Strategies to Control their Emotions
The teacher needs to give opportunities to the kids to learn how to control their emotions in different situations. One way to do so is to brainstorm them with many problems that demand other emotions.
As parents, use day-to-day activities to ignite different emotions in your kids and study how and why they react the way they do. Build strategies to help your kids manage emotions that are overpowering them and talk to them about it.
3. Allow Mistakes
When kids do something wrong, a teacher gets a golden opportunity to teach what is right in them. If your kids cannot decide how to react in a situation, it can be a head start for you to teach them the application of emotions. When they are exposed to a free environment, they tend to learn more.
If your kid is making a mistake, it’s better to calmly talk to them instead of bursting your anger on them. Anger will only scare your kids and nothing good will come out of it. Instead, sit them down and tell them what they have done wrong and how they can fix it. If they still keep doing the mistake, you might want to talk to the kid with an assertive yet soft tone.
4. Introduce Optimism and Gratitude
There is a very famous saying by Dr. Shimi Kang: “gratitude is connected to emotional stability and internal control.” When we create an environment where the kids get an opportunity to be grateful for all they have and do, it helps them handle unpredictable situations and look optimistically toward life.
5. Let the Kids Feel Frustrated
In our households, we always put the children first, and most have never experienced frustration or not getting what they need right away. When kids are stuck on a mathematics issue, someone is generally there to explain how to do it fast. That is not always the case in life. When no one is present, they must discover methods to look at the situation from multiple perspectives and resolve it independently. Now is the time to strive and experiment with techniques to deal with dissatisfaction in the classroom.
Conclusion
Emotional management is essential in the survival game. Learning to regulate one’s emotions begins at a young age and should be continued throughout one’s career. Your pupils are a product of their IQ and EQ. Both are equally crucial in the development of a robust and healthy person. Our instructors are obligated to teach and nurture the Whole Child; therefore, we take the time to help cultivate their emotional intelligence. It will benefit the child, the classroom culture, and our society.