Understanding Emotional Literacy
Kristin: Gail, so what is emotional literacy? What does that term mean?
Gail Joseph, PhD: So there's a few different definitions, but we really think about emotional literacy as the ability to identify and express emotions or feelings in healthy ways.
Dawn: Okay. Kristin: Okay. Yeah.
Gail: But it's really about knowing emotion words, right, being able to recognize them. When I'm talking to somebody else, being able to recognize them on your face, based on the situation, your body cues, but also being able to identify them in myself. And we can start as young as babies, right? Infants, right? So, the best way is just to use a lot of feeling words in context every day to talk about how, "Oh, you are crying. I think you feel upset. I think you feel scared when you heard that noise," right? So, talking about the feelings with little babies.
With toddlers and preschoolers, we can start playing games and singing songs about feelings. We can do If You're Happy and You Know It. Right? We can say, "If you're happy and you know it, give a high five." [high five] Nice job, right? We can say, "If you're sad and you know it, tell someone, 'I'm sad.'" So, we can build in increasingly more complex words, too. "If you're frustrated and you know it, take a deep breath."
So we can use a lot of words, we can sing songs, we can read books. And there are so many great books about feelings that just that's the whole content. But really any book, any book that you have, you can probably think about how the character is feeling. And one of the things I like to do is go through a children's book before and identify different feeling words I might be able to point out and talk to young children, give them a child-friendly definition about it and put a little Post-It note in the book so, as I'm reading it, I'm remembering that, "Oh, yeah, I wanted to draw their attention to how this character might be feeling excited or how this character might be feeling irritated or how this character might be feeling overjoyed." So, bringing in lots of more complex feeling words, as well.
Kristin: Using kind of a whole mix of emotion words, right? Kids know happy, sad, mad, right?
Gail: They do, yes. So a colleague and I actually had done some research where we interviewed, really, about a thousand preschool children from ages 3 to 5, including children with developmental delays as well, and asking them to tell us all the different emotion words that they knew, either by pointing or telling us, expressing it. And one of the things that was surprising is that almost all 3-year-olds even knew happy, sad, and mad. And yet, oftentimes, I go in and see that one week on emotion words being taught, which is not enough. And I see that one week on emotion words, and they do happy, sad, mad and then maybe one other word. And I just think that, you know, young children probably know those, so we can start there but then build, right, and build into more complex feeling words.
Kristin: Overjoyed.
Gail: Overjoyed, excited, yes. Frustrated, right? Annoyed. But also feeling ecstatic, feeling included, feeling content, feeling calm, right? So, just really building that emotional vocabulary, the breadth of those words. Because one of the things we know is that in order to regulate an emotion, we need to be able to name it, right? So, we need to actually be able to say the name of the feeling that we're experiencing in order to start regulating that emotion.
Dawn: Well, that's a good cue up for us because we actually have a video for you all to check out about some children talking about their emotions and what they do to calm down.
Cydalise: Hi, I'm Cydalise, your kid correspondent for "Circle Time Magazine." Today, I will be talking to kids about emotions. Do you guys know what an emotion is?
Girl: No. Boy: Yes.
Cydalise: Can you tell me what an emotion is?
Boy: An emotion is how you feel. When you're happy or sad, that's an emotion.
Cydalise: Show me a happy face. [children smiling] Give me... shy. [children look down and away] Show me a sad face. [children frowning] So what makes you guys happy?
Girl: Freddy. Girl: Ice cream.
Cydalise: Ice cream makes you happy? What makes you happy? Girl: And my grandma makes me happy.
Boy: Smiles.
Cydalise: Smiles make you happy? What makes you happy? Girl: When I cuddle with my mom and dad.
Girl: Laughing.
Cydalise: Laughing makes you happy?
Girl: When somebody gives me flowers and gives me a hug or tells me, "I care about you."
Cydalise: What makes you feel scared? Girl: When a cat is about to fall in a tree. Cydalise: What makes you angry?
Girl: When Tom took my favorite toy.
Cydalise: When he takes the toy? What about you?
Boy: When someone takes the toy – when I'm angry and someone takes the toy, that's when I'm angry.
Cydalise: How would you calm down in a situation like that?
Boy: We calm down by taking breaths. [slowly inhales and exhales] Just like you're sad. Girl: Cuddle with my Chasey, my blanky. They help me feel better.
Cydalise: How do you calm down?
Girl: I will tell myself a joke. Knock-knock. Cydalise: Who's there?
Girl: Lemonhead.
Cydalise: Lemonhead who? Girl: Lemonhead Mr. Banana. [laughter]
In this clip, featured guest Dr. Gail Joseph talks about emotional literacy and building more complex understanding and vocabulary. This video is part of the Positive Behavior Support module, one of several EarlyEdU Alliance Higher Education Learning Modules.
