Understanding Emotions And Emotions Of Children

A child who utilizes his/her affect as a coping mechanism is relying upon the ability to express or ventilate through emotion. He/she will require opportunities to share anxieties, fears, anger, sorrow, and grief, and have those emotions validated by the adults in his/her life.”

At the start of their lives, babies are programmed to seek out the things that they want by crying. As they mature, though, children's emotional capabilities expand, allowing them to develop a variety of skills that they will need in their adult lives.

For many children, their emotional distress may cause changes in behaviour. Some children or young people will not be able to show their feelings or to talk with others about what they are going through; they may isolate themselves, becoming quiet and withdrawn. In others, the reaction may be the opposite; they may become verbally or even physically aggressive or just generally less cooperative - slamming doors, staying out late or getting into trouble.

Emotion regulation involves intrinsic and extrinsic processing of monitoring and modifying emotional reactions in both positive or negative situations (Martins, 2012). In order for individuals to have the ability to regulate emotions, they must beware of their emotions. Although infants are unaware and lack the ability to regulate their emotions, it then becomes the role of a primary carer to nurture the infant, thus acting as a model for regulating emotions. Evidently, infants grow to reflect the ways in which their carers control and modify their emotions as well as social boundaries. Furthermore, emotion regulation is considered an important aspect of an individuals life as it 'can moderate emotions and keep them in a manageable range

Managing feelings and behaviour: children talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.

The child is learning form a young age to be sensitive to the beginning of others and to show some type of emotion when they have a problem. When a child is trained at such a young age about these things,

Observing a child is a fascinating and eye opening experience. It is amazing to see how children view certain things differently than adults. Things that some adults take for granted, children see as a miracle. I recently observed a little girl. For the purposes of confidentiality, the name of the little girl has been changed to Katy. She is five years old and has two older sisters. She will start kindergarten this year. I observed Katy on June 20, 2016 at twelve in the afternoon at the park with her mother present. It was nearly 100 degrees outside. There were a couple other children at the park as well.

Lewis (2013) explains the ability to control your emotions does not begin until a child nears the age of six (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). The need to maintain control of feelings and emotions remains important throughout adulthood. It would not be normal for a 38-year-old lawyer to throw a temper tantrum in the courtroom because they did not win a case. Not everyone is great at controlling their emotions, but there is always room for improvement (Berger, 2014). A child is not born with this control, nor can one learn it on their own. Morris et al. (2007) discussed the importance of parents, teachers and other adults that may be in a child?s life to instruct and inform children of appropriate ways to manage their feelings for them to learn or develop over time (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). It is the same aspect as manners. A child does not come out of the womb saying ?please? and ?thank you,? but must be taught to use such mannerisms. Eric Erikson explained that children believe they can achieve any goal just as long as they keep trying because their view of their abilities is not yet within reason (Berger, 2014). A child may see a fish breath underwater and believe they too can breathe while swimming

When children know that their feelings are accepted they learn to express them, confident that adults will help them with how they are feeling.

By repeating these four stages every day the child can learn to manage their feelings themselves. We can start this approach with babies.

Socially, their emotions may be erratic, ranging in moods of an extreme high to deepest despair, all within the same class period. They want to find significance and meaning, and will look to adults to show the way. However, they need to develop their own independence.

Tully, Donohue, and Garcia (2015) examined individual differences in children’s empathetic responses to determine if there is emotional understanding of their mother’s distress. 82 children between the ages of 4 to 6 years old observed their mother’s emotions during a pretend phone conversation. The researchers rated the children’s negative facial expressions and measured their heart rates throughout the experiment. Once the pretend phone call ended, the researchers asked the children about what they experienced while their mothers answered the pretend phone call. The researchers recorded each narrative account for emotional understanding.

When parents and family members repeat the process of saying please and thank you around the house, they learn to know the true meaning of having manners. Children seeing the way others share items and feelings around each other is a big eye opener to them that allows the child to feel their own feelings. When children see that they do something wrong, the parent should always be there to ask them questions for example on what happened?, how this made them feel?, how they think the other person felt when they did the same thing back? Children than begin to think about their own actions might impact the emotions of those around them. When kids interact with one another they get to learn how to relate with eachother that will then help develop social problem-solving skills. Having many practice with peers help them a lot to solve and listen to each other that way they learn to compromise. Although, youngsters who have difficulty showing and or controlling their emotions are more likely to struggle with problems like depression and anger. This gives a child a lower self-esteem and will have a poor self image on themselves due to the fact that everyone around them is either always being negative, any type of bullying, being teased, made fun of, and when they distance themselves from anyone around them. During early childhood, children often start to develop self-conscious emotions around parents,

Students need to be able to deal with situations, negative and positive. “This component of emotional intelligence is particularly critical for eLearning, as learners often feel frustration, boredom, and anxiety during difficult, dull, or disengaging eLearning assignments” (Pappas, 2015, para. 6). As students increase their use of emotional intelligence in the classroom, then they will be able to communicate and interact better in the classroom. Those with low emotional intelligence, may react more abruptly to constructive criticism. We see this often after we grade assignments or discussions. “As an example, if a student has received an unexpected grade and believes it was unfair – a strong emotional reaction can disrupt concentration, communication, and meaningful collaboration with others if it is allowed to continue unchecked” (Johnson, 2017, para. 4). We have to help them want to self-manage their emotions and behaviors.

Because self-esteem is influenced by so many different things (e.g. society, media, friends, etc…) it is very important that parents and caretakers take the proper steps in helping a child develop a strong sense of who they are (Nuttall, 1991). By the time a child reaches three years of age they have experienced a very wide range of emotions (Cluff, N.D.) Parents, teachers and caregivers will lay the foundation upon which a child emotionally develops (Cluff, N.D.). Positive emotional development is important for children because this will not only determine their ability to develop healthy relationships with their peers but also how to successfully deal with their own emotions (Cluff, N.D.). Many theorists agree that there is a connection between a child’s emotional levels and development; they also