Currently emotional intelligence is a key aspect in education, why is it not taught at home or in schools? Social-emotional skills allow boys and girls to establish meaningful relationships. The emotional experiences that they live in social spaces permeate the bonds, and quality of life, as well as their social and emotional development. In this sense, the family has an impact on the emotional development of minors.
By Virginia Galindo.
Mexico City, June 5 (However).- It is usually thought that, when talking about minors, they do not have the possibility of expressing sadness, frustration, anger, disappointment, anxiety, stress, etc. However, they have the same right to feel these emotions and talk about how it makes them feel.
As parents and the general public, we can provide a safe context so that the little ones at home feel fully confident in expressing any feeling: fear, frustration, anger, joy, stress, anxiety, sadness, among others.
We can observe the strong emotional changes in the little ones that the COVID-19 pandemic has had in Mexico. However, the pandemic may only represent the tip of the mental health iceberg, an iceberg that we have overlooked for far too long.
Let’s see what are some psychological reactions observed in infants and adolescents during the pandemic:
–Under 5 years old: behavior change, anxiety, irritability, passivity, isolation, aggressiveness, regressive behaviors (thumb sucking, loss of sphincter control, language regression) and night terror.
–Between 5 and 11 years: failures in attention and concentration, memory difficulties, irritability, low tolerance for frustration, anxiety, stress, apathy, and depression.
Currently emotional intelligence is a key aspect in education, why is it not taught at home or in schools? We have to remember that children and adolescents are the future of our country.
In childhood begins the discovery of emotions, the attempt to regulate them, as well as the search for appropriate responses. As tutors or adults we must help children from an early age to develop adequate emotional intelligence. emotional intelligence; It refers to the ability to recognize our emotions and those of others, helping children to have a high knowledge of how to self-regulate and express their emotions.
Social-emotional skills allow boys and girls to establish meaningful relationships. The emotional experiences that they live in social spaces permeate the bonds, and quality of life, as well as their social and emotional development. In this sense, the family has an impact on the emotional development of minors.
Magazineit’s okay and Distroller give you the following recommendations to achieve the emotional well-being of the little ones.
Recognize which are the emotions that surround the house. What is the feeling that prevails or constantly demonstrate, express and transmit at home? If our main feeling is joy, our children will know how to live in joy, if the emotion is security, we will transmit peace. So we must raise awareness, first realize how we feel as adults and what do we transmit? If we come from the street happy and share the joy, our children will contact that feeling and we can say: “I am happy about this… and why do you feel happy today?”
Likewise, if we arrive angry, we will transmit stress and anxiety to the children, since we shout or do not speak our anger with them. We can arrive sad or angry and tell them; “I have an angry or sad face because this happened to me… I’m going to get really angry, I’m going to calm down and I’ll tell you how I did it.”
It’s okay to practice being angry: this is acknowledging anger, realizing that I am feeling it. What is it that is making me angry? Without judging we let the emotion pass like clouds move in the sky. Count to 10 breathing deeply, becoming aware of how the air enters and leaves the nose. We ask ourselves, where in my body do I feel anger?
Remember to teach your son or daughter the importance of recognizing and assimilating emotions, including anger. To express it objectively, one recommendation is that you teach him to bring his hands together to where his heart is, this is a tender reminder of how important it is not to harm oneself or those around us. Finally, talk together to talk about what makes you openly angry.
Send a resilient message to our little ones: To achieve emotional well-being, it is key to create a family environment where positive messages are constantly sent, for example: “I care about you”, “I love you”, “I believe in you” “you can”, “your emotions are always valid”, “it is okay to cry”.
Virginia Galindo is a Master in child and adolescent psychotherapy and Virginia López, a clinical psychologist; founders of the digital platform it’s okay and who recently joined forces with the Mexican firm Distroller to promote the emotional well-being and mental health of new generations.
