As I have said before, simply increasing your child’s emotion vocabulary improves their emotional intelligence. It makes sense that in the process of exploring new words for new feelings we tune in to those emotions and they are added to our repertoire of awareness. Next time we feel the emotion we have just learnt a new word for, we can express it readily too of course.
A simple activity for exploring new emotions with your child is the emotion spectrum. On a large sheet of paper draw a spectrum at the top that spans from comfortable to uncomfortable (see illustration). Every now and then introduce a new emotion. With your child consider when a person might have this emotion triggered and what it feels like. Write the name of the emotion under the spectrum when you have agreed with your child whether the emotion is comfortable or uncomfortable.
