Managing Emotions

For a child to learn how to manage an emotion they must first learn how to identify the emotion they are feeling. This can be an extremely difficult task.

One way to encourage children to help identify the emotions they are feeling, is to help them to notice and recognise clues occurring in their body. These clues are often in the form of felt physical sensations in the body. For example, if a child is feeling nervous, they may notice the experience of butterflies in their tummy, sweaty palms and begin to tremble. Whereas a child who is feeling angry may feel hot in their face and clench their teeth or fists as their anger escalates.

To be able to help your child to recognise the cues their body gives, will support them to be able to identify the emotion they are experiencing.

Give it a try! Ask questions like,

“What are you noticing that is happening in your body right now?”

“So you notice, you have… butterflies in your…. tummy…this could be your body clue to let you know you are feeling ….nervous”.

Not working out for you? Kids and Teens Counselling and Psychotherapy can support you. Email kathy@ktcounselling.com.au and we can work out ways to manage emotion together.