How to Nurture Emotional Intelligence in Your Child
Emotional intelligence will help your kids become excellent leaders, great professionals, and build healthy, solid relationships throughout their lives. If you’re looking to teach your kids to identify, express, and effectively manage their emotions in healthy ways, but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we will provide 4 easy steps to help you build emotional intelligence in your kids. https://easytobemom.com/ is another great source of tips and hacks on raising an emotionally intelligent child. Feel free to switch to this blog once you’re through reading this article. And don’t forget to practice enhancing your kids’ emotional intelligence on a regular basis.
Step 1. Recognize & Label Your Kid’s Emotions
Helping your kids recognize their feelings is very important in developing their emotional intelligence. The importance of emotional regulation cannot be overstated as it is the foundation of how we deal with emotions. Put a name to your child’s emotions by verbalizing what they’re feeling. When your little one is upset because they’ve lost their favorite toy, ask them, ‘It seems that you’re feeling really sad right now. Am I right?’
If your kiddo looks happy, ask them, ‘Are you feeling excited because you finally get to eat your favorite ice-cream?’. When you start using emotional words such as ‘sad’, ‘happy’, ‘excited’, ‘thrilled’, ‘angry’, etc., you will build a solid vocabulary around your kid’s feelings. Therefore, you will enhance your child’s ability to easily recognize what they’re feeling.
Step 2. Express Compassion
When your child is upset and crying for no particular reason, you can become tempted to minimize their feelings. However, that may lead your little one to think that sadness and/or crying is wrong. Instead of dismissing your child’s dramatic emotions, be as empathic and compassionate towards them as you can.
You can say something like, ‘I feel sad that we have to go home, too. But your teddy bear is waiting to have dinner with you at home’. That way, you will show your kiddo that you understand them. That being said, feeling understood automatically develops self-soothing skills in your kid. The ability to manage their feelings will definitely come in handy for your child in adulthood.
Step 3. Be a Role Model
As a parent, you should teach your child how to express their emotions in a socially appropriate way. So while recognizing their anger verbally or drawing an angry man could be effective, yelling and throwing tantrums is not. Therefore, the best way to teach your kid how to express feelings is by showing these skills yourself. So make sure you’ve worked on your emotional intelligence hard enough before you start fostering it in your kids.
Step 4. Teach Coping & Problem Solving Skills
When your kid learns to recognize and name their emotions, they need to learn how to cope with them. You can use various strategies to help your child develop their coping skills. For example, you can create a so-called calm-down kit for your child. The kit may include a coloring book, favorite cartoons, songs, or toys. Then, when your kid is upset or angry, remind them to go get their calm-down kit and start using their tools to manage their negative feelings.
Cutting to the Chase
Remember that developing emotional intelligence in your child is an ongoing process. Thus, there’s always room for improvement. Work on this aspect non-stop by incorporating skill-building into your everyday routine. Make sure you don’t focus on your child’s mistakes. Instead, use them as opportunities to grow better.
