Learn & Grow
Self-Awareness
How to Help Your Five-Year-Old Understand and Manage Emotions
How to Help Your Five-Year-Old Understand and Manage Emotions
Emotional self-awareness involves identifying and understanding one's emotions ― including "big feelings" that can sometimes overwhelm us. As Fred Rogers reminds us: "When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary." Your five-year-old probably has a good grasp of basic emotion words (such as "mad," "sad," "happy" and "scared") and is ready to talk more about what causes people to feel certain ways and to anticipate how they might feel in a particular situation. This type of thinking is a building block of empathy.