Good Feeling Words for Kids

While your tiny tot's emotions may seem somewhat out-of-control, the child development pros at PBS Parents note that early childhood is a period where your little one is building a life-long foundation for dealing with feelings. Help your young child to better understand, identify and express her emotions by using feeling words everyday and during special activities.

  1. Toddlers

    • During the first half of the toddler years -- typically between ages 1 and 2 -- children begin developing self-awareness, according to Zero to Three. Your young toddler can start naming his basic emotions with simple words that can learn through repetition or from following your lead, and then by the time he reaches the latter half of his toddlerhood, he very well may be showing a budding sense of empathy and using feeling words to describe other people's emotions. Give him simple vocabulary choices during times when he is struggling for the right words to use. For example, if he starts throwing a tantrum because he wants a cookie and you won't give him one, give him appropriate words and say, "I know that you are angry" or "Can you say you are sad?".

    Preschoolers

    • The preschool years -- ages 3 to 5 -- are when children typically start to better manage their feelings. While toddlers often have difficulty showing self-control when facing powerful feelings, preschoolers have the regulatory abilities to use their words more often to express emotions. The child development experts at PBS Parents note that preschoolers can identify emotions in other people or by pointing out feeling-type faces in books. As your child encounters emotional situations, or sees faces of emotional expression in books, use feeling words such as, "Jane looks happy with a smile on her face" or "Why do you think the little girl in the book looks sad?". You can also introduce more complex feeling words such as "frustrated."

    Early Elementary

    • As your child moves into kindergarten and the early grade school years, you can begin introducing more feeling words. Young grade-schooler can identify their own emotions as well as the emotions of others, and they can also recognize reasons why someone else is showing a certain feeling. Use basic feeling words such as happy, sad, mad or angry along with more complex terms such as frustrated, gleeful or joyous in sentences that require your child to explain what the emotion is and what might be evoking that emotion.

    Older Kids

    • Your older child, in third grade or above, is building a more complex vocabulary and has the ability to use subject-specific words. Help him express his emotions in a mature way by introducing subject-related terms that focus on different feelings. For example, if he is happy, teach him words that describe levels of happiness, such as "cheerful," "joyous" and "ecstatic."

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