Parenting Ideas
By Michael Grose
PARENTING IDEAS - SUPPORT OUR CHILDREN WITH EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
Emotional development begins at birth
Emotional development is a complex task that begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. The first emotions that can be recognised in babies include joy, anger, sadness and fear. As children’s sense of self develops, more complex emotions like shyness, surprise, elation, embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride and empathy emerge. School aged children and young people are still learning to identify emotions, to understand why they happen, and how to manage them appropriately.
Emotional expression includes several components:
- physical responses (like heart rate, breathing and hormone levels)
- behavioural displays of emotion
- feelings that children and young people recognise and learn to name
- thoughts and judgments associated with feelings
- action signals (for example, a desire to approach, escape or fight).
Influences on emotional expression include:
- values and beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing emotions that children and young people learn from families and educators
- how effectively children and young people’s emotional needs are usually met
- children and young people’s temperaments
- cultural norms
- emotional behaviours that children and young people have learned through observation or experience
- the extent to which families are under various kinds of stress.
The rate of emotional development in children and young people can vary from person to person. Some children may show a high level of emotional skill development while quite young, whereas others take longer to develop the capacity to manage their emotions well into adolescence.
Knowing that they can be successful at what they do allows children to feel competent and confident – which in turn affects their emotional development.
Children who don’t have many experiences of success, more often have to cope with disappointment, which can lead to development of a negative sense of self.
By being supported to learn to value their own strengths and efforts, as well as those of others, children and young people develop resilience to bounce back from challenges and hardship.