Young kids experience mixed emotions just like grownups do, and it is common for them to feel frustration and anger at times. However, at that tender age, kids in a preschool age need to be helped to manage their emotions. Child care providers in daycare centers are experienced to help young kids to handle anger and other emotions in a productive way. Daycares in Thornhill help preschoolers interpret their own emotions and feelings to help them interact appropriately with others.
It is very important to help kids learn how to manage their emotions because it gives them the emotional and social tools they need to understand themselves better and deflate tense situations. By taking your child to a daycare center, you will allow them to learn how to respond to the emotions of their peers as well as express their feelings. They will be able to recognize and deal with their own emotions and feelings, as well of those of others. The following are ways daycare centers help kids manage their emotions:
Giving words for emotions and feelings
At a daycare, a child learns simple language such as frightened, happy, sad or angry to specifically describe how they feel. They move beyond the word “feeling” to describe their actual feelings in order to be understood better. A child with emotional literacy is able to recognize and respond to social cues well.
Put feeling words into context
Daycares have story and activity time to help children expand their imagination. During these activities child care providers introduce emotions concepts to help kids make a connection between self-expression and feelings. They use facial expressions and the aid of pictures to help kids understand different emotions and how to positively react to them. In turn, a child learns how to express feeling words when he or she is experiencing a heightened emotional moment.
Express feelings and emotions without guilt or shame
It is very important to teach your kid to freely express their emotion without inducing guilt or shame. A child should learn how to express their emotions and not repress them. In a daycare center, a child learns how to express their feelings and emotions while regarding others. They learn that it is ok to express how they feel but at the same time they have to ensure that it does not affect the people around them. For example, if a child is feeling angry, they need to express using their words that they are angry and not use their fists because that may endanger them or others.
Model self-control
Children mostly learn from what they can see. As a parent, it is important to control your emotions before your children who will emulate what you do. At a day care center, a child is taught how to model self-control using descriptive, calm language to voice his or her own emotions and feelings.
Mediate tense emotional conflicts
Social and emotional development in preschoolers is very important since it prepares children on how to resolve conflicts when they start school. At a day center, children are given a chance to express their feelings and use words to express their emotions. If there is a conflict between two kids, each child is allowed to express how they feel in turns. They are then asked how they think the conflict should be resolved without including violence or negative feelings. The care givers in a daycare center ensure that children work through their issues until they are resolved. This exercise prepares a child to learn how to resolve issues independently without having a grown up to mediate.
Use space to explore feelings
When a child finally learns how to express her emotions and feelings, they should be allowed to find their own quiet place where they can withdraw and work through their feelings. They should be made to understand that this quiet time is different from time out or a consequence of wrong behavior.