EXPRESSING YOURSELF WITHOUT WORDS! | Self-Expression before Emotional Language Development

In today’s video, Hank talked about self-expression, especially when we are feeling big emotions. He doesn’t always have the words to express how he’s feeling, so he shared lots of different ways to do so without using his words. He used art, music, movement, and playing pretend!

Parents & Guardians – Hank also shared that he talks with his mom and other grownups to learn more about emotions and the emotional language we need to express ourselves with our words. As caretakers and educators, guiding children through their emotions helps them to make sense of what they are feeling. Talking about our own emotions also helps model for children that emotions are natural and completely normal, and that there are appropriate ways to deal with them.

A fun project to get you started is to take photographs of your child demonstrating various emotions using different facial expressions and body language. Labels can be added to these images as a resource for your child and you to refer to when having difficulty identifying emotions.

Having effective methods of self-expression along with meaningful conversations with loving adults about emotions can help assist children in their social-emotional development, which helps them now and for the rest of their lives!

Thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again soon!

HANK IS SOCIAL!