Respectful Relationships

Victoria University Secondary College is implementing the Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) Program.

Emotional Literacy

Over the next few months, information will be provided on how to create respect and equality through social emotional learning.

Emotional literacy can be defined as the ability to understand ourselves and other people. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, build empathy and respond appropriately to the emotions of others.  Building a large vocabulary for emotions helps to increase emotional literacy and build self-awareness and empathy for others. 

There are many ways you can help build emotional literacy at home!

• Name emotions and how these influence behaviour and relationships.  This can include feeling multiple conflicting emotions at the same time.

‘Okay, so you're saying that you're angry at this situation.  I can also see that you are feeling angry because your body looks tense and you are standing close to me’. 

• Discuss situations where you experienced difficult emotions and the strategies you used to regulate your behaviour.

‘One time I felt overwhelmed and raised my voice at someone at work.  When that happened, I felt embarrassed and out of control.  I removed myself from the situation and took 10 deep breaths to calm myself before returning’. 

• Talk about body language and how to recognise emotions through body signs.

‘I can see you are happy from the smile on your face’.