PK through third grade
The better you understand your child’s emotions, the more likely you’ll be able to help them learn how to manage them. Emotion Detective shows you how to understand your child’s emotions by thinking like a detective, not a judge.
Key Strategies
- Avoid judgment and start with curiosity. Sometimes, when your child is dealing with strong emotions, shed the natural impulse to be an emotion judge or to step in aggressively to right a wrong. Slow down and give yourself the time it takes to get curious and explore what’s going on emotionally for your child.
- Figure out what your child is feeling and why they’re feeling that way. Start by asking them! They may or may not be able to tell you, but stay patient and collect clues over time.
- What are you feeling?
- What might have happened to cause this feeling?
- What do you need now? What can I do to support you?
Keep talking with your child, digging beneath the surface to help you and them understand what’s really going on.
Additional Resources
Book: Permission to Feel, Marc Brackett
Emotion Detective