Try one or all of these activities at home to help your child practice understanding others before they seek to be understood.
Game night idea: Try playing “Emotional Charades” which works on communicating emotion nonverbally. Start by writing feeling words down on paper or cards, then take turns drawing cards and acting out the feeling without using words. The other players try to guess what feeling is being portrayed. You can also follow up each word with questions such as:
How do you know when you are feeling____________?
How do you let someone else know you feel____________?
How do you know when someone else is feeling this way?
What was it like to try to express that feeling without words?
You can also follow up with a discussion about when your child experienced these feelings or saw someone else experience them and what that was like for your child.
TV/Movie Connection: Like watching shows with your child? Next time a commercial comes on try putting on the mute button and having a conversation with them about what’s going on in the show, how the characters are feeling, and how you can tell. You can also use this to start making predictions about what they might do or how they might act based on what you’ve observed so far. Are you more of a DVR family that fast forwards through the commercials? No problem, you can use that pause button to stop and discuss at opportune times in the plot line.
Reflective listening: In our busy lives and caring for our children, it’s easy to fall into task master or problem solver mode immediately. Take some time to practice really listening to what your child is trying to express and identifying and acknowledging their feelings. Telling them “you’re excited/upset/frustrated/nervous/etc” can help them learn to identify and put names to what they’re experiencing and feel noticed by you.
