What are feelings, and why are they important?
“Feelings”, or “emotions”, are experiences that happen inside of us every day. We have lots of different words to explain our different feelings - like happiness, sadness, anger, excitement, or worry, to name just a few. We all have feelings - some are big and some are small. Young children in particular often have big feelings that can be hard to name, and easily become overwhelming.
Helping young children to make sense of these feelings and work out what to do in order to feel better, is one of the most important things we can do for our children. When they can express their thoughts and feelings in words, it helps them to learn ways of managing these big emotions when they feel challenged. Knowing about emotions from a young age helps little ones to grow into happy and emotionally healthy children (and adults, of course!).
How can I help my children to understand feelings?
Reading about feelings, or emotions, with your child, is a great way to help them learn these skills. Books are useful because they can:
- help children to identify what they are feeling,
- can give them the words to name these feelings, and
- show them what to do to manage these feelings.
There are lots of different books available - some books describe what it is like to experience different feelings, some show children what they can do when they have big feelings, and others explain what happens to a fictional character when they feel a certain way. They each offer a different way of helping children to learn about the feeling sad, angry, worried, and much more.