Most nannies know how important it is to validate a child’s big feelings in tough moments. But when a child is mid meltdown, their brain is in fight or flight mode. Instead, you can teach emotional IQ proactively when kids are happy, relaxed, and receptive.
- Mirror Games
Sit in front of a full-length mirror together. Take turns making feeling faces and guessing the emotion. Expand beyond basic happy or sad to include emotions like surprised, eager, unsure, or exhausted, and point out physical cues. Notice how your shoulders scrunch up by your ears when you pretend to be worried, and ask them how their body feels when they make a frustrated face.
- Storybook Emotions
Reading together is a safe place for children to explore emotions because the feelings belong to the character, not them. While reading a favorite picture book, pause to play emotion detective. Instead of asking how the character feels, ask what clues in the picture tell them the bear is worried. Help them spot things like furrowed brows, clenched fists, or a character standing slightly away from the group. This builds empathy while teaching kids to read social cues.
- Stuffed Animal Roleplay
Use two stuffed animals to act out typical daily scenarios, like a puppet who hates sharing blocks, a bear who is scared of the dark, or a bunny who feels left out at the park. Ask the child to help the animal figure out what to do. Keep the scenarios light and curious. Let the puppet make mistakes or express silly, over the top reactions so the child feels empowered to give advice and name the emotions.
- Colors and Sensory Objects
If words alone are difficult, you can use colors and textures to explain and express feelings. Create a feelings bin using colored rice, pom-poms, or playdough. Assign colors to different energy states: red for anger, yellow for excitement, blue for sadness, and green for calm. Ask the child what color their body feels like right now. Let kids combine colors when they feel mixed emotions. A child who is excited to go to a birthday party but nervous about the crowd might choose yellow and blue, creating a great opening to talk about feeling two things at once.
The next time a tricky situation arises, children will already have a picture in their head. This makes it much easier to communicate and move forward together.
If you want more advice, please reach out to Melanie, a former nanny and Mom’s Best Friend Senior Staffing Specialist.