WHY ALL CHILDREN NEED EMOTIONAL EDUCATION 

Written by Liza John 

Human beings are born as radically immature beings. We slowly progress from not knowing who we are or how to communicate to assuming we are the centre of the universe, and gradually acknowledge that other people and their opinions are valid.  

This gradual progression is called emotional development, and an emotionally mature adult is usually a rare sight. Emotional education and emotional quotient have become buzzwords in the parenting and lifestyle niche, so if you have been wondering what it is all about, here’s the answer.   

What Is Emotional Education? 

Emotional education involves teaching your child or any adult skills like self-management, self-awareness, and interpersonal skills that will make their social, academic, and occupational life better. From problem-solving to impulse control, emotional education has positive and long-lasting effects on individuals.  

Being an emotionally intelligent individual involves being able to empathize with others, managing relationships, and making use of emotional information to motivate yourself. It also involves having emotional self-awareness and self-regulation, which makes someone capable of recognizing emotions experienced by themselves and others. Emotionally intelligent individuals can be kind and make thoughtful choices for others and themselves.  

The idea of emotional intelligence or emotional education may seem abstract for many. However, studies have shown that emotional intelligence has a neurological basis and is linked with better mental health. Emotional education, often incorporated into daily parenting or in schools at a very early age, helps young children to grow into emotionally mature adults of the community.   

Benefits Of Emotional Education 

Making sure of emotional education in your children’s life can improve how they respond to stressors in life. Children who are not emotionally repressed have a better chance at establishing stronger relationships and maintaining them throughout their lives. Academic pressures also seem to not take as much out of children who receive emotional education.  

Children who have a volatile temperament, low impulse control, and a lack of concern for others’ property and well-being seem to do better when emotional education is combined with their counselling sessions. Children who throw regular and violent temper tantrums also show great improvement as they take part in activities that facilitate emotional development. When parents take interest in nurturing the emotional development of their children, it also reduces the risk of mental health issues like adjustment issues, depression, and anxiety disorders in them.   

While the process of inculcating these skills can take time and effort, making your parenting a tad bit more complicated, the results are going to be worth it. Your child, family, and community reap benefits from having emotionally mature individuals in their midst. 

Regardless of your cultural and socio-economic background, emotional education is a way to ensure that your child is an understanding and prosocial member of society. 

Activities To Encourage Emotional Education  

Techniques to encourage emotional development often have no age limits. The entire family can take part in these and spend some quality time while doing them. Since these exercises make understanding yourself, others, and your relationships, participating in them as a family yields benefits manifold.  

Journaling  

This is a simple task. Pick up a journal and write out your feelings, thoughts, ideas, or whatever comes to your mind as you like. You can make it structured by entering in your daily to-do list, things you learnt, books you read, or your goals for the coming week. You can also form a theme to base your journal entries on.  

Furthermore, you can ask your child to jot down the things they are grateful for on one day and make them include details about the times of empathy for the next day. This way, they can get introduced to new emotions and see the different ways the  

Breathing Exercises 

This is meant especially for the ones whose emotions run wild rapidly. If your child is prone to tantrums or getting stressed easily, look up for a few meditative exercises to practice with them regularly. Once this becomes a part of their routine, whenever the child feels emotionally overwhelmed, you can ask them to practice the exercises as they calm down. Soon after this, ask them if they are ready to talk, and go ahead with your parenting.  

Final Thoughts 

Emotional development is not as evident as physical development, nor does it happen as easily. Emotional education helps to boost this drawn-out process and gives children a chance to acknowledge and understand their feelings. With its importance in child development, experts recommend it and there is no reason why you shouldn’t try it.