5 Ways to Support Your Child’s Emotional Well-Being
Raising a healthy child is about more than their physical well-being, it’s about their emotional well-being too. When children are emotionally and socially healthy, they have the capacity to learn and develop important behaviors, such as displaying empathy and verbalizing their needs.
Is your child receiving adequate emotional support? You can equip them with the skills to be a kind, positive, and well-adjusted child. Read on to learn 5 key ways to support your child’s emotional well-being
1. Show Warmth and Kindness Even on Bad Days
Controlling your temper is difficult for many parents, but treating your child with patience and gentleness is the best way to turn a bad day around. When you show warmth and kindness to your child, you’re telling them that you care about them and love them even if they misbehave.
As unconditional kindness is modeled to them, their social-emotional well-being allows them to treat their peers with gentleness and respect, instead of lashing out, hitting them, or yelling.
Use a relaxed and calm tone of voice whenever you redirect your child’s behavior. This conveys that your problem is the behavior, not the child.
2. Help Them Verbalize Their Feelings
Children sometimes lack the vocabulary to express their feelings. Encourage them to speak to you when they’re upset about anything. When they tell you how they feel, repeat what they say as a question, expanding with your understanding.
For example, Annie is crying in front of the fridge. You ask her to use her words to explain what’s wrong. Annie says, “snack.” You repeat this back to her, adding what you understand. “Are you upset because you’re hungry and want a snack?”
This models to your child how to verbalize their needs and emotions so that others understand them. If you’re interested in helping your child thrive, you can learn more here.
3. Put Yourself in Their Shoes
Before you react to anything your child does, try to see things from their perspective. Listening to your child before getting angry or offering advice helps them to trust you.
When you give your child a chance to explain their actions and their feelings, they are less likely to react defensively. Validate whatever they’re feeling, and then work with them to change certain behaviors.
4. Prioritize One-On-One Quality Time
Individualized attention gives your child space to talk about their feelings and makes them feel special and loved. If you have more than one child or a busy schedule, it’s easy to forget to prioritize one-on-one time with your child. Your attention automatically focuses on the child with the highest level of needs. This works well in a family where the kids take turns needing more attention than the other, but can be dangerous if one child is always your focus.
Make sure to set aside personal quality time with all of your children, spending a few minutes connecting with them each day. You can read a bedtime story with them, include them in dinner preparations, or play games with them after school.
5. Encourage Creativity
Some children are better at expressing themselves through words than others are. Encourage your child to express their feelings and thoughts in different ways. Creative expression is incredibly important for your child’s development and emotional regulation.
If anything is holding your child back from expressing their emotions, use creative activities to promote their emotional well-being.
Start Supporting Your Child’s Emotional Well-Being Today
To raise a happy and healthy child, make sure you’re doing these 5 things to support their emotional well-being. Give them the tools to grow into clued-in, responsive, and gentle adults that are guaranteed to change the world.
If you found this post helpful, be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more on running a healthy household, relationship advice, and home improvement.
