Expression With Feelings

Many of us are aware of the feeling words such as happy, sad, scared, lonely, tired, lonely, angry and upset. However, we rarely know how children process these feelings. Feeling words are terms that reveal how children process various emotions and thoughts. Some feeling words also have special, intuitive meanings for children such as hurt, pleasure, fear, surprise, triumph and pride. These words are so easy for children to remember because basically they are familiar to them all.


Some examples of positive feeling words include proud, fearful, joyful, elated, cheerful and above all, joyful. To describe what an excited child might feel, say 'He was so happy he jumped up.' A fearful child might feel that he is about to die. A joyful child might feel that his world has just ended and an ecstatic one might feel like he is going to see a miracle.

The biggest challenge in teaching kids how to express their feelings is that it's difficult to determine when a particular word is appropriate and when it is not. For example, the expression angry can be used to express any negative feeling or emotion in a sentence. So when you're telling a child to feel angry, use the adjective angry instead of 'disgusted'. It could turn out to be context-specific words instead of a feeling word.

Another problem is that it's difficult for young children to understand these new words and to relate them to their experiences. The best approach is probably to use everyday, ordinary words as much as possible when talking to young children. The other approach is to use a few very precise words. That's why it might be a good idea to start with simple expressions and move on from there.

There are contexts where a child might want to say "I'm excited" or "I'm happy". This could happen when learning about basic emotions like happiness, sadness or excitement. You don't have to define these terms by using very specific words. The meaning may be what's being expressed in the context of the situation. An example could be that she's excited about a party but maybe she wants to wait until she gets home from school before she goes.

When you teach young children the difference between feeling words and other vocabulary they need to learn about emotional states, you can give them a tool to express their feelings. It does not matter whether the expression they choose is "angry" or "joyful". What matters is that it helps them to express their own emotional states. They will learn how to connect the words with their emotional experience.

As your baby grows older, you can teach him to express his feelings verbally. One way to do this is to provide examples. For example, if he asks how something feels you could ask him, "ells like a cherry", or "smells like sunshine". These are adjectives that describe physical or verbal aspects of his world. He is getting an image of how something feels rather than an adjective.

As a parent, you can help your child to understand how feeling words are used. Let him know what they sound like and how they affect his world. Don't fall into the trap of using "negative" words like "don't", "can't", "won't", "won't happen" etc. When your child is aware of how these words affect his world, he can learn to express his own emotions in much more effective and healthy ways.