Talking about your feelings

Being able to recognise different feelings and talking about them can be tricky to do for all of us.

It’s important to give your child lots of opportunities to explore and express different emotions.

In Reception class children may:

Being aware of your own feelings is called emotional intelligence and is very important to your child’s development.

Top Tip

Share some of your own emotions with your child. Let them know that emotions are OK to talk about.

There are lots of fun activities you can do to help your child build their emotional awareness.

Try the activities below!

Help them to ‘label’ their emotions. When they express an emotion let them know what it is called.

Make faces in the mirror that express emotions and encourage your child to do the same.

Say things like:

Show me what a sad/happy/angry/worried face looks like
Show me what my face will look like when I left my bike outside in the rain and now it is wet
Show me what my face will look like when I go to the shop and my mummy buys me a new
toy.

Take turns so they can learn from you.

Go on a walk near to your child’s school. Take some time to talk to them about how they are feeling about starting school.

It’s a good idea to do this a few times before school starts, as their emotions might change over time.

If your child is happy or angry or upset, make sure you tell them this is what they’re feeling.

Labelling emotions in this way can help your child describe their feelings more clearly when they’re asked.

Be open with your child about your own emotions.

If they have made you happy or upset you, tell them this and why you feel that way.

This is important for normalising talking about emotions and the causes of emotions.

These videos offer more tips on encouraging your child to speak about their feelings.

This page is part of our Ready Steady School series, designed to help your little one make the most of their start to school life.

You might also find these other topics useful: