By admin 
Our emotions play a major part in our lives, and if we don’t understand them completely as humans, they will hold us captive as we become older. It is preferable if we can identify, communicate, and control our emotions more.
So, from infancy, a child should experience all these feelings: happiness, sorrow, anger, irritation, fear, love, and longing.
But you may wonder why emotional intelligence in children is so vitally important. We now have rich material on the matter available for all the parents. Shall we go now? Continue reading!
What is Emotional Intelligence?
For a moment, imagine being completely in touch with knowing precisely what you’re feeling and why, and how your feelings are affecting others.
Of course it’s possible and you can help your child achieve those skills of being aware of his emotions, understanding them, managing, and using them for good purposes. After all, that is emotional intelligence.
What are the 5 main concepts of emotional intelligence?
- Being conscious of one’s own feelings and how they influence one’s ideas and actions is known as self-awareness.
- Self-management: the capacity to control feelings in order to overcome obstacles and adjust to circumstances.
- Understanding other people’s feelings, wants, and worries is known as social awareness.
Interpersonal relationships: the capacity to create and preserve gratifying and healthy - connections.
Making responsible selections involves allowing feelings to influence sensible choices.
How important is children’s emotional intelligence?
They will need children’s emotional intelligence to be able to have a bright future for your son or daughter, to see that understanding their feelings is one of the most essential steps toward a balanced and happy life.
Therefore, the development of EI in children promotes not only their mental welfare and personal gratification but also academic success, as they are able to bear frustration, stress, and adversity healthily.
This self-awareness can be a good friend in handling relationships with school friends and family, that is, also towards the improvement of children’s social interaction.
Strategies for developing emotional intelligence in children
Now that you know what children’s emotional intelligence is and the importance of developing this skill, we will present some strategies to help you:
Talking about emotions
One of the most direct ways to develop EQ is to talk about emotions openly. We know that it is not always easy to talk about this subject, as many times even we adults do not understand our own feelings, but there are ways to make this happen.
For example, use stories, movies, or commonplace situations as opportunities to talk about how characters or people might be feeling and why. This helps children identify and name their own emotions, an essential step toward self-awareness.
Of course, there should be talk only about good emotions because, unfortunately, bad ones still exist in our lives. Therefore, show them that everything is all right since you feel the same thing they do and can give advice and support so that your little one feels better at last.
Teach self-management
Teaching self-management techniques like deep breathing, counting down to calm down , or even creating a “calm down space” at home can equip children with the tools they need to deal with intense emotions in a healthy way.
A golden tip for all moms and dads is to explore the artistic and sporting side of their little ones in moments of joy or sadness, with extracurricular activities being strong allies in this mission.
Promote empathy
To encourage empathy, it is important to actively listen to children’s concerns and validate their feelings.
From this strategy, we are able to model empathetic behavior , since discussing the perspective of others also helps to develop social awareness.
Encourage positive relationships
For many introverted children, interaction can be a difficult task. However, there are ways to manage embarrassment, shyness, and anxiety.
In this case, group activities, team sports or shared games can be excellent ways to promote interpersonal skills, as they all teach about cooperation, conflict resolution and mutual respect, thus preparing our children for healthy relationships.
Practice decision making
Finally, another excellent strategy for developing children’s self-awareness and confidence is to involve them in age-appropriate family decisions , as well as discussing the possible consequences of choices, as this helps develop critical thinking and personal responsibility.
The advantages of emotional intelligence
The journey to nurture children’s emotional intelligence results in several benefits. Among them, we have:
- Children with high EI are more likely to develop a positive outlook about themselves and their lives. They are better able to handle the ups and downs of emotions, leading them to greater happiness and better mental health.
- Better Relationships: The ability to relate to the emotions of another person helps connect bridges built on empathy and understanding, which form the basis for good friendship and family relations.
- Academic and Professional Success: There is also this amazing fact that emotional intelligence also helps in academic and professional success. The ability to manage oneself would improve concentration and persistence, while working as a team would be promoted.
- Resilience: A world that is not always kind needs emotional intelligence education for young minds and kids, arming them with the strongest armor against adversity emotional resilience.