Emotional Development

How Do We Develop Emotionally

Emotional Intelligence : Why Every Child Deserves to Learn these Skills!

Children are faced with so many challenges nowadays: high divorce rates, bullying both cyber and in person, body image diseases, increased violence on the news, fast-paced lifestyles, higher levels of stress in society and much more. We need to provide children with the skills needed to manage their emotions both at home and at school. Emotional development happens in various stages but we can also help to develop these skills in addition to their natural progression.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to growing and maintaining good relationships with yourself and others. A set of competencies which enriches daily life and increases the ability to maintain relationships and a better outlook on life.
Emotional Intelligence was made a household name by Daniel Goleman in the mid 1990’s. By looking at the work of Peter Salovey and John Mayer , Goleman came up with five domains of emotional intelligence: Motivation, Relationship Awareness and Relationship Management, Self awareness and Self Management.

Kids have differing points in their emotional development. Happiness, sadness, and fear can be noticed by kids as young as three through nonverbal hints like facial expression and voice tone.

Emotional development is core in young children's bridge to becoming more independent. We can begin to grow young kids emotional literacy by ensuring they realise it is normal to have a variety of feelings. By explaining that every feeling has a purpose, being able to name feelings and learning to manage feelings well, children will become emotionally literate.

The ability to know and understand feelings, improves as we age. Kids in the five to eight age group are more interested in friendships and social sensibilities. Parents of this age group need to realize the power of emotion and how it impacts on retention of information learnt at school. Textbooks and worksheets are not going to stimulate many feelings in kids this age ho are curious and ready to explore the real world. Hands-on activities, re-enactments, discussions and artistic expression can enhance the emotional connections to the curriculum and are excellent tools for this age group.

During the teen years, and even as early as the tweens, the emotional brain or the limbic brain is increasingly active. This age group are going through major alterations in both mind and body. Hormones are raging in kids this ageand they must have social and emotional learning as a priority in schooling in order to prevent bad decisions that children may later regret.

Developing EI abilities in kids encourages them to manage conflict with peers, resulting in positive outcomes. They can grow their abilities in self-motivation, stress management and optimism. Children can work cooperatively with friends and peers both inside and outside the classroom. Children with high EI are also able to display empathy for others and may be instrumental in helping others with lower EI. These are skills that will help children well in to adulthood. Imagine being taught at school how to manage your stress from a young age. Emotional development must be an area that educators focus on as well as the academic side of school.

Research shows over and over again that schools that implement effective EI programs have better academic results. If children can manage stressful feelings, have good relationships with their peers and teachers and are self motivated which are all EI skills then they are bound to have an improved academic experience. Many skills can be easily integrated into the regular curriculum at school as well as taught explicitly. One idea parents and teachers alike can use in the use of bibliotherapy.

Children learn primarily though modeling. They watch what we do, how we handle situations. It is important to show children how we handle

stress, what we do when we are angry, sad, fearful and other emotions ...these will be key lessons. Although emotional development, occurs at certain stages naturally we as parents and educators need to target these stages of development and encourage children to develop the emotional skills needed to face the world successfully.

There are many exceptional resources available to parents to help answer the many questions about development from birth to the teenage years! Emotional development occurs in stages and is part of emotional intelligence

Like this page? Here's some more pages you might like to read:

• Relaxation and Kids

• Journal Writing Therapy

• Learned Optimism and Children

Return to Emotional Intelligence Education from Emotional Development