Have you seen your young child struggle with big emotions, leaving you baffled as to how to respond effectively? Take a moment to mentally picture one of these extreme moments, and all of the emotions involved… for both of you, before reading the rest. THIS is part of your family’s journey toward emotional intelligence.
All children struggle with emotions, that’s part of human development. Some struggle more than others, much to the amazement of any parent that has more than one child. They may be raised the same, but their intensity of emotions, and how they respond to them are different.
The way we, as parents, respond to these big emotions has a lot to do with how we are raised, and what we have learned since then… and it is often a battle between our initial emotional reflex reaction, and stopping to consider and make the best choice.
Your child needs guidance on how to recognize their emotional state and how to respond to these emotions in a healthy way. There are many adults who still need to learn this, and/or are dealing with the repressed emotions that were not responded to well in their younger years. To be honest, that’s probably most of us. I know that fits me, but I want my children to have a better way. How can we, as parents, know how to guide our children to learn skills we may still be learning?
Extensive research has consistently verified several things:-
- Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a significant key to success in life
- These are skills that do NOT develop naturally. Training & guidance are required.
- These are skills that can be learned at any age.
- These skills are easier to learn as each emotional and social stage occurs developmentally, beginning in infancy.
- The majority of these skills are best learned between birth to 5 years old.
- Children who do better at these skills excel academically,
- High EQ is a better indicator of success than high IQ .
Join us on our Journey starting in January, as we learn more about emotional intelligence, and the best strategies for helping our young children develop healthy responses to emotions and social interactions.
Follow this blog for more articles and videos with additional information, inspiration, resources, and references to research. In the comments, add your stories of your family’s journey, or resources you recommend, which may help provide a direction for further articles. Or join one of our groups where we can have more of a conversation with each other, for support and inspiration for our journey toward emotional intelligence with our children.
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If enough people are active in our conversations and interested, we’ll invite a trained specialist in Conscious Discipline to provide us some additional guidance, Although the CD program is not the only resource I use and recommend, I have to say my improving parenting and teaching skills are highly influenced by Becky Bailey’s book and seminars. And I know a great local specialist who would be willing to share.
Enroll… and you and your child can join us as we learn and practice healthy strategies during our weekly Kindermusik classes making music together. Click the following link to learn more.
Focus on Emotions with your Littles in January 2019
Classes start January 8-10
It is my intent to provide information and inspiration for families with young children to create amazing connections, personally and socially, through making music together, and through creative and gentle parenting.
If you know of another family who would appreciate being a part of this learning experience, PLEASE share this link with them and personally invite them to join in this journey with us, as we work toward the best way to raise the emotional intelligence of our children together.