Ability to Identify and Name Emotions

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Emotional self-awareness (recognizing feelings and building a vocabulary for them) is an essential foundation for emotional literacy. Children with a sufficient feelings vocabulary can communicate with others about their emotions and express their needs. Children who accurately identify and label emotions tend to be less aggressive, are more accepted by peers, and are generally more socially competent (Arsenio, Cooperman, & Lover, 2000; Denham, McKinley, Couchoud, & Holt, 1990; Izard, Fine, Schultz, Mostow, & Ackerman, 2001). All children need support in building a feelings vocabulary. Children with disabilities have a more limited vocabulary of feeling words than their typically developing peers (Feldman, McGee, Mann, & Strain, 1993), as do children from low-income families compared to their middle income peers (Hart & Risley, 1995; Lewis & Michalson, 1993).

Children learn to develop an awareness of feelings when adults serve as role models by expressing their own feelings in words and teaching a feelings vocabulary to children in class meetings, during conversation and play with children, and through games and activities. Through repeated examples, children learn to identify their own emotions and the feelings of others. They learn that their emotions are normal and an accurate reflection of their experience. They learn that feelings can change and that people may have different feelings about the same thing (Committee for Children, 2002).

Helping Children Identify and Label Emotions

• Provide an environment in which children feel safe to share their feelings. Remember that you might be offering the only emotionally safe haven for children experiencing abuse, neglect, violence, or other trauma in their lives. Expect that it will take some time for children to trust and feel safe to communicate openly with you.
• Pair a photograph or sketch of a "feeling face" with the corresponding emotion word. Introduce a variety of feeling words, beginning with the primary emotions (happy, sad, mad, afraid, surprised, and disgusted) and gradually add words to expand children's feelings vocabulary (disappointed, frustrated, excited, embarrassed, worried, etc.). See Figure Below

Feeling Words for Young Children to Build an Emotional Vocabulary

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