1. Use this exercise to help your children identify and label their emotions. Have them repeat the words to describe how they are feeling, and give examples.
2. Help your children decide on pro-social ways to express their emotions. Set behavior limits so they know what is, and is not, acceptable.
3. Be aware and pay mindful attention to your child’s feelings and emotions.
4. Take a deep breath and calm yourself when a child exhibits negative emotions, and recognize it as a teaching opportunity.
5. When children react in anti-social ways, privately review this chart with them. Have them describe a prosocial way to express their emotions instead. Have them practice it and compliment them on their progress.
6. Listen kindly and intently; seek to understand by paraphrasing what they appear to be feeling, and validate your child’s right to feel that way. Explain that they need to express emotion in polite ways.
