Can Gradually, Understand 5 Steps To Teach Children To Manage Emotions

Illustration teaching children to manage emotions (Unsplash/Marcos Paulo Prado)

JAKARTA – For children, emotions cannot be grasped by hand. Therefore it is necessary to teach parents to manage it.

Anger, sadness, joy, joy, happiness, and disappointment may be very difficult for a 3-year-old to identify. But it is not impossible for parents to do the steps in teaching children to manage emotions as below.

1. Help recognize emotions

Emotion is a natural response to an event that is experienced. When one sees a kitten separated from its mother, one can feel sad. It's different if you receive a gift, the children will feel happy and happy.

Various kinds of emotions need to be introduced to children. Parents can use assistive devices, such as cards with facial expressions when they are sad, happy, happy, disappointed, angry.

2. Introduce the limits of emotional resilience

Emotional endurance limits are related to the way emotions are released. For example, when someone is angry, they don't have to slam things or hit them but can be directed to release them more precisely. Like when angry there is no need to slam things or hit but by saying 'I don't like it' or 'this makes me angry and not comfortable'.

3. Give examples

During their growth period, the people most imitated by children are their parents. Reported by the Stella Maris School of Future Entrepreneurs page, based on parenting theory, a child can learn to control emotions well if he sees his parents.

This means that parents need to control their emotions appropriately, especially when their children see them. If you are detached and angry, try to engage your child in a dialogue and apologize.

4. Support in a positive way

Punishing and giving strong warnings to children is not effective in teaching kindness, even teaching to manage emotions. For the next stage, parents need to support their children in a positive way.

Invite frequent interactions, provide opportunities to express arguments, and keep directing how to release emotions appropriately. Also teach positive ways to release emotions, and explain that everyone feels angry, happy, crying, disappointed, tired. Feeling it is okay, but what is not allowed is to damage, hit, hurt, and drop.

5. Accompany practice constantly

Teaching emotions to children while in their infancy is not immediately understood and practiced. It takes tens or even hundreds of times to recognize, properly release, and manage them.