Emotional Development

Emotional development is the ability to recognize, express, and control feeling at different ages, as well as empathizing with others. The relationship with parents, siblings, and other people significantly affects the emotional development of a child.  

The first sign of emotional development occurs between six and ten weeks after birth, when infants start smiling. At three months, the child starts laughing, which indicates that they like what surrounds them. Infants start reacting to uncomfortable situations at six months by expressing emotions depicting anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. 

Two-year-old children usually can express embarrassment, pride, and shame, which are acquired emotions based on their surroundings. They can also express emotions verbally once they learn to speak. It is at this age that toddlers start empathizing and regulating their emotions.

At three years, children start understanding societal norms about how to express emotions correctly. Thy gains the ability to suppress anger and aggression around adults, but re less likely to do so when interacting with their age mates.

Children start faking emotions at age four. For instance, they can pretend to be happy even after receiving a gift that they do not like.  This requires the skill of knowing the essence of faking expressions as well as the control to mask genuine feelings convincingly. 

Between ages seven and eleven, kids show a range of self-regulation skills. Some of the factors that influence emotion management include the situational feelings, and the relationship, gender, and age of the person involved. Also, children develop expectations on how specific people respond to their emotional cues. 

Once they start going to school, children develop social skills and gain full control over tier emotions. Depending on their perception, they may feel superior or inferior to their peers in various areas. Self-esteem is influenced by how they think others perceive them. A failure to achieve their desired goals leaves them feeling inadequate. Situations that might expose these inadequacies often cause anxiety. 

When playing with others, children build social competence and improve their emotional maturity. Playing also promotes teamwork and communication skills. It also fosters pretend play, her ids than think out loud about their emotions. 

We hope you will understand about the emotional development tips for growing a healthy growth mindset in your children and if you are finding mindfulness training. We suggest The Mindfulness Academy of Asia (MAA) is a new subsidiary school of The American School of Bangkok, specializing in the teaching and learning of mindfulness in education.