Activities to Increase Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and react to others’ emotions while comprehending social networks. Research has shown that even more than IQ, your emotional & social intelligence is more correlated with success and overall happiness. Some of the proven benefits of increasing social and emotional intelligence are: better physical health, higher academic scores, fewer behavior problems, closer relationships, increased resiliency, and less prone substance abuse, mental health issues and violence. Daniel Goleman’s model identifies four key areas of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. In my therapy practice I use many different interventions to help kids recognize, express and manage their emotions. Here are five of my favorite activities:
Feelings Candyland:
The rules of the game are the same as regular Candyland except, when you choose a card to move, you have to express a time you felt the feeling that correlates with the color. (i.e. Blue is sad. Talk about a time or something that makes you sad). Here is an outline of the game Feelings Candyland
More