10 Toys And Books That Help Little Kids Understand Big Feelings
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Helping your child navigate something as big and complex as emotional wellbeing can feel pretty daunting, if you ask me.
But there are ways to support your child to understand and manage their feelings that can be “fun and even enlightening”, according to Hayley Standen, a social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) advisor, who’s teamed up with Learning Resources to create a Kids’ Wellbeing Toolkit.
Emotional literacy is the ability to recognise, name and talk about feelings – children learn this over time, and it’s pretty important for everything from self-awareness and empathy to maintaining healthy relationships.
You can start building emotional literacy by helping children learn the words for different feelings. “Naming emotions makes them easier to understand and manage,” explains Standen.
Some practical ways to build emotional literacy include:
- Talking about how characters feel in books, films and on TV.
- Naming your child’s feelings in the moment.
- Sharing your own feelings to help normalise them.
- Linking feelings to colours.
- Using resources such as books and tools to introduce emotions in a fun way.
On that latter point, here are 10 toys and books which can help kickstart some all-important conversations about how your child feels.