Emotions are a person’s reactions to positive or negative life events. They are of great importance in the life of every child, since this is part of communication that helps him express his attitude to what is happening.   Interaction between people is impossible without understanding each other's emotional state. An important component of a child’s personality development and maturation is understanding his own emotions and sensations.

Why does a baby need emotions?:

Understanding the feelings of people around you greatly facilitates the child’s communication process. If a baby does not understand the emotional world of those around him, he will develop fears, alienation and hostility. When a child can well understand his personal emotional state, as well as the state of those around him, then he shows empathy, sympathy, and respect for others.

Communication cannot be effective if the interlocutors do not feel the emotional state and do not have the skills to manage their emotions. A child’s personality is formed correctly only if he has developed the ability to distinguish and understand his own sensations, emotions and feelings.

Understanding emotions and expressing them is a very complex process that requires a certain level of child development. Attention should be paid to the development of both intellectual and moral emotions, which are of great importance in the formation of an active life position. Such emotions are important for developing humanity, compassion, and responsiveness in a child.
In physically weakened children, low mood prevails, which negatively affects mental performance. Children who have a well-developed emotional sphere are more responsive, socialized and popular among their peers. Such kids have highly developed abilities for empathy, understanding feelings and performing thoughtful actions. Therefore, it is very important for children to develop the emotional side of their character.

Emotional well-being will ensure the formation of the following aspects of character:

adequate self-esteem
self-control skills
success orientation
emotional comfort

Age-related characteristics of emotional development:

Newborn babies
A newborn baby receives emotions from the closest people - parents. A child’s first smile, laughter, and joy are indicators of his successful development and health. Positive emotions help in the development of memory, speech and movement. This is the key to the normal development of the baby. In order for a child to develop normally, it is necessary to support him during activities in a joyful mood.

The development of the emotional sphere of children is impossible without the participation of parents. Lively emotional communication between adults and children enriches the emotional side of character and also affects development. The emotional state is no less important than the physical and psychological.

Children under three years old
Children in the first months of life communicate only through the expression of emotions. The child perceives the surrounding reality very emotionally. But such reactions of the baby are very short. The baby may cry, but after a short period of time he will laugh.

Children after four years
From the age of four, children begin to show different types of negative emotions. Now mood changes do not occur without significant reasons.

Children 5-6 years old are already able to correctly identify the emotional state of others. They can easily recognize joy and admiration, but have difficulty recognizing sadness, fear, and surprise. The child pays closer attention to facial expressions and facial expressions, but does not yet show much interest in posture and gestures. In the process of interacting with people, the baby is able to feel affection or injustice.

If a child is treated with kindness, then he will experience the same feelings towards others.   If you offend a child, then he will respond with aggression. By the age of seven, a child can correctly and adequately assess almost all basic human emotions.

Factors that influence the development of emotions:

1. Communication with other people

2. Active activities of the baby - dancing, music, vocals, sports

3. Play activities. Role-playing games have a positive effect on the emotional sphere

4. Labor activity of the baby. As a result, emotions are formed from the baby’s experience of the feeling of joy that success brings, as well as disappointment from failures.

How does family influence a child’s emotional development?

The psychological climate within the family has a strong influence on the emotional development of children. Harmonious development occurs only in families where a favorable psychological climate reigns, and where cohesion, mutual respect and goodwill are highly developed. Parents in prosperous families show love to their children in different ways:

With a friendly look

Tender touches

With gentle words

Through caring actions

If there is an unfavorable situation in the family, then the relationship between its members is characterized by tension, conflict, and a negative attitude towards people. A child in such a family feels unprotected and is constantly in a state of discomfort.

Groups of parents according to the type of reactions to the baby’s experiences:

1. Parents who show indifference to children's emotions. Such adults are confident that their main task is to satisfy the physiological needs of the child: feed, clothe, cure. They don't have time for emotional contact with their child

2. Parents who provide emotional support. Such adults teach their children the basics of self-regulation.

3. Parents who punish a child if he shows negative emotions with prohibitions and physical violence
A big and serious mistake of many parents is oppression and suppression of the child’s emotional reactions, which hinders his full emotional development. Adults must be able to determine a child’s mood and correctly and reasonably point out his shortcomings. To teach a child the basics of emotional literacy, adults must be able to find a common emotional language with him. The task of family education is to create within the family a prosperous atmosphere of security, love and respect for the child.

Listen to musical fairy tales with your child, empathizing with the characters
enrich your child’s vocabulary with words that indicate shades of feelings: happy, angry, upset, dissatisfied, offended
introduce rules for your child’s expression of emotions: “You have the right to be offended, but fighting is prohibited!” etc.
Discuss life situations with your child, offer to describe the feelings and sensations of the participants in the events
Discuss his feelings with your child, giving him the opportunity to cope with the emotions that arise.
Offer your child options for activities that will help him calm down: dancing, singing, drawing, communicating, running. Let your child choose activities that suit him
Show your child attention, care, respect, love to develop emotional well-being
create an atmosphere of mutual love in the family so that the child learns to love himself
When talking with your child, give him the opportunity to talk about his feelings about the events that happened
Read to your child literary works rich in emotions
relieve your child’s emotional stress with physical exercise.

Games aimed at developing emotions in a child:

Adults need to develop the emotional sphere of children with the help of a variety of simple games:

"Album of Emotions" Cut out photographs or pictures of people in various emotional states from magazines or newspapers and paste them into an album. Look at the images together, discuss people’s moods and the reasons for their appearance. You can demonstrate any emotion, and then invite the child to repeat what he saw. Play the game with children over 1 year old

“Show me your emotions.” The game is suitable for children over 4 years old. Ask your child to show the following emotions: an angry bear, an offended baby, an angry person, a scared pig, a cheerful person, etc.

The emotional development of a child is the basis of his normal mental state, communication, development and success in the future. It is very important to engage in the development of the emotional sphere from an early age, using a variety of activities, mainly games.

Baldina Olga

Games for the emotional and volitional development of children 2-3 years old.

Target: introducing children to basic emotions.

Tasks:

Introduce children to basic emotions.

Teach children to recognize and voluntarily express feelings.

Teach children the ability to control their feelings.

Teach children the ability to take into account the feelings of another person.

Create an atmosphere of mutual understanding, common interests of the teacher, parents and children.

Speech begins to be actively used in the emotional life of two- to three-year-old children. Although, due to the lack of its development, they often use only individual phrases, and sometimes just sounds. With targeted pedagogical influences, the formation of a dictionary of emotional vocabulary occurs. A child can adequately perceive the words angry wolf, frightened hare, cheerful bear, etc.

Games are the main means of developing the emotional-volitional sphere of preschool children.

Didactic game “Emotional animals”

Goal: mastering the skills of managing one’s emotional sphere: developing in children the ability to understand, be aware of their own and others’ emotions, express them correctly, and fully experience them; relieving psycho-emotional stress.

Game description:

Draw a joyful bunny (bear cub, frog, etc.);

Draw an angry (sad, happy, etc.) bear cub (bunny, etc.);

Let's turn into forest animals and depict different moods.

Game "Mood Theater"

Goal: promotes the development of self-understanding, introduces children to the ABCs of expressing emotions.

"Emotions in Poems"

Goal: stimulate the development of imagination by reading specially selected literature to children, select a picture with an emotion corresponding to the text.

"Cut pictures"

Goal: expanding ideas about emotions and their manifestations, teaching children to form a whole image from parts.

"Find the same emotion"

Goal: to teach to find two identical emotions, to develop children’s speech, attention, and logical thinking.

"Our Emotions"

Goal: to teach children to recognize feelings and emotions by facial expressions.

"Mood"

Goal: Understand and distinguish between people’s emotional states (joy, anger, tears, surprise)

Card index of games for the development of the emotional sphere of children.

Publications on the topic:

Finger games as a means of developing the emotional and cognitive activity of children 2–3 years old (first junior group) 1. Features of the development of the cognitive and emotional sphere of children 2-3 years old Early childhood is the period of child development from 1 year to 3 years.

Didactic games for sensory development of children 3–4 years old“Decorate the Butterfly” Objectives: To teach children to group objects by color. To consolidate knowledge about the geometric figure of a circle, about the concept of many - one.

Frolova Elena Aleksandrovna Municipal autonomous preschool educational institution kindergarten No. 100 of the city of Tyumen “The child’s mind is located.

Games for cognitive development for children 4–6 years old The proposed tasks can be adapted by adults taking into account what the child likes. Recommended games and tasks are effective in work.

Games to develop independence in children 4–7 years old Card index of games for developing independence in children 4-7 years old. “Let’s set the table for dolls” Purpose: To train children in setting the table. Meet.

Card index of games for the development of the emotional-volitional sphere in children 5–6 years old Card index of games for the development of the emotional-volitional sphere in children 5-6 years old. “LET'S SAY HELLO” (from 5 years old) Purpose: the exercise continues acquaintance.

Baby? At three years old, children are very mobile and active; the development of intelligence allows them to compose logical sentences of three to four words.

Physical development of a child at 3 years old

Three year old child loves to move. He climbs onto the toilet, onto the table and chairs, crawls under the bed, and after a while he mysteriously ends up inside the closet! It can be found everywhere. The baby dances with pleasure and participates in all the games he can. He is very mobile, and, despite the ever-increasing portions of food, although the baby has grown by about 10-12 cm, he has hardly gained any volume. By the end of the third year, he weighs approximately 14-15 kg and is approximately 98-100 cm tall. If his body weight has increased noticeably recently, make sure your baby is not overweight.

• Try to limit the amount of sweets– as a parent, you should know the whole truth about sweets. The sugar they contain not only has a bad effect on the condition of teeth, but also suppresses appetite, disrupting proper nutrition. A good rule is to eat sweets only on one day of the week - for example, Saturday. Remember that chocolate, although it is less digestible, is healthier than candy and cotton candy.
• See a doctor if your 3-year-old cannot throw a ball forward yet., stand on one leg for at least a couple of seconds and wash your hands yourself. Lack of these skills may be normal, but it is worth consulting with a specialist.

Height and weight at 3 years

• Boys on average they weigh 14-15 kg, height - 98-100 cm.
• Girls- on average have a weight of 13.5-14.7 kg, height of 96-98 cm.

Emotional development of a child at 3 years old

A 3-year-old child knows exactly what a birthday is and looks forward to it with enthusiasm. This year it is worth organizing a real celebration for the baby’s birthday, who will remember it for several months. He can make his own guest list. Most likely, it is during this period that the era of “cephalopods” will begin: three-year-old children enthusiastically draw “faces,” that is, circles with dots, and add two long lines to them - “legs”! Watch how a child’s drawing skills change year after year .

At the age of three years, the baby already knows about 900 words and composes logical sentences of three or four words! A three-year-old child is already able to concentrate on the first games - board and card games, although for him the rules of Monopoly or Peter Pan are quite complex. He rather likes simpler options like “War”, where he moves first and then his opponent. You can also play “Chinese” - entire generations of parents and grandparents love such games; they are great for learning to count and predict events.

A three-year-old child can engage in one game for several minutes. At such moments, he most often draws, assembles construction sets, works with dolls, or drives cars along the highway.

• Create a script for your growing child's birthday party. A noisy holiday can make a child very tired. Instead of planning a dozen activities, it is better to focus on several diverse options - it is advisable that outdoor games alternate with drawing or modeling from plasticine. How you organize the celebration determines whether the hero of the occasion will find the strength to entertain the guests until the end of the event.
• Good birthday gift idea There will be sets of cubes, puzzles, and interesting games. If you are looking for something original, you can choose cardboard models, designer or unusual toys.

Intellectual development of a child at 3 years old

The fourth year of life arrives, and real problems arise for parents! Although your three-year-old child already knows quite well the rules of life in the family, he is not fully adapted to life in society. There is probably no child who would not want to encroach on someone’s property at least once; there is no child whose parents did not think about about the great responsibility for him or who would not be embarrassed by him playing “doctor” with his peers. These are normal signs of development, so you should not blame yourself for bad parenting methods; look at this behavior with humor.

By the end of the third year of life, the baby experiences a full range of feelings - from shame, jealousy and fear, boredom and melancholy to joy, empathy and compassion. You can use the opportunity to teach your child to help others.

• Even if the whole family is already tired of the too-long “rebellion of a two-year-old child”, do not react too violently to your baby's outbursts of anger. A healthy child should show emotions. Excessive complaisance is an alarming symptom, indicating excessive imposition of parental ideas about disciplinary responsibility and pressure on the child’s personality.

The third year of a child’s life – what might worry you?

The child's legs hurt at night.

At the end of the third year of life, he may wake up in the middle of the night crying and complain of pain in his legs. These are most likely growing pains - such symptoms are normal for a child between the third and fifth year of life. They are usually felt in the calf, knee and thigh, but only at night and are short-lived. Growing pains affect 25-40% of children. If your baby complains of discomfort, you should refrain from increased physical activity - running and jumping.

Frequent colds.

A child, especially if he has started going to kindergarten, may suffer from a runny nose quite often, because it is easy for him to get infected from other children in the group who return to kindergarten untreated after an illness. Some babies also develop allergies, the symptom of which may be a runny nose. Sometimes it's a reaction to pollen.

Emotions are complex, largely genetically formed patterns of behavior that arose during evolution in order to solve certain problems of adaptation and allow the individual to act quickly and adequately in any situation.

It's not just adults who need social skills to navigate their relationships. It is also necessary to develop emotional intelligence in preschool children so that it is easier for them to make new friends, avoid conflicts and learn to adapt in society and be happy.

Both negative emotions have physical, mental and behavioral components. Emotions such as fear and well-being are familiar to the child even before birth. In the womb, the baby is able to turn when anxious, suck his thumb in moments of calm and tranquility.

The baby knows the voice of his mother and father, the sounds of children's songs. If the mother is anxious, someone offends her, the baby already feels all this in the mother’s womb. The stomach contracts during an argument, stress hormones are released, and the heart begins to beat faster. The child shrinks, hearing rude sounds from outside. The fetus hardens and this experience is stored in the child's brain. After birth, a very young child, in alarming situations, enters a similar state of hardening when he hears rude and loud voices. Negative emotions lead to this state.

Understand your own feelings, develop strategies for overcoming negative emotions, the ability to sympathize with others, adequately: the child must first learn all these skills.

Emotional competence is the ability to be able to manage one's own and respect other people's feelings. Those who have such abilities usually have self-confidence and have to fight negative emotions. For this reason, emotional development is closely related to social development. Social skills and emotional skills are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

To assess the importance of emotional development, the development of the emotional sphere, you must first consider the importance of emotions. The definition of “Emotion” is “to feel.” Emotions develop from feelings. Thus, not only emotions play an important role, but also feelings.

The main steps in the development of a child’s emotional sphere occur in the first six years of life. Preschool children learn to understand their feelings through facial expressions, gestures and expressions. At first, emotions are manifested through laughter, crying or screaming, and then emotions acquire age-related characteristics. In order to correctly express your feelings, in order to understand and recognize the emotions and feelings of other people, it is necessary to pay special attention to the emotional development of the child.

Emotional development from birth to primary school age

Emotional development in the first year of life

Soon after the birth of a child, primary emotions such as joy and fear appear. In addition, the child is able to imitate the emotional manifestations of an adult and respond to a smile.

Regarding the ability to regulate emotions, a child of this age tries to choose a state in order to find solace and satisfaction of his small needs (positive and negative emotions are regulated externally).

Emotional characteristics of children in the second year of life

In the second year of life, the child’s vocabulary begins to intensively form, therefore, the ability to show emotions expands. Opportunities arise to express feelings for another person. The baby makes his first attempts at desirable and undesirable methods of regulating emotions.

In addition, starting from the second year of life, a child learns to empathize with other people.

Three years of age - emotional characteristics

From the age of three, a child's emotional experiences and expression of emotions may differ. Thus, he is able to manipulate their expression to elicit certain reactions from others. His vocabulary expands and hence he can express and explain his feelings better. However, at this stage, a young child needs help in forming emotions.

Emotional development - fourth and fifth years of life

At 4-5 years old, a child attends kindergarten, where he receives many new experiences in terms of his own and other people’s feelings that they experience. These feelings are often contradictory and confusing. Many children this age may struggle with negative feelings. They distract themselves, avoid conflicts, etc. However, at this age they still often need the help of an adult in the form of consolation and constructive suggestions for resolving conflicts, especially when a preschool child experiences negative emotions.

The sixth and seventh years of life - the development of the emotional sphere

Preschoolers at 6-7 years of age have complex emotional expression and know how and when they can express emotions. Older preschoolers are able to support a friend, sympathize with others, compromise, overcome negative feelings and deal with them constructively and adapt the expression of their feelings, and are able to control themselves.

Thus, preschoolers acquire the most important skills that contribute to the development of emotional competence.

How parents can support their child's emotional development

In order for preschool children to develop emotional competence and for the development of the emotional sphere of preschoolers to be successful, parental support is necessary. Below you will find some tips on how to promote constructive feelings in your family:

• Be an example for your child, teach him to show feelings and positive emotions.
• Talk to your child about feelings.
• There is no need to put pressure on a child when he is susceptible to negative emotions. Support your child in such moments, help him in the process of regulating emotions.
• Make sure your child has good relationships with their peers from the start so they will learn to empathize with others and improve their social awareness.

I would also like to note that boys require more psychological help in this regard in order to express appropriate emotions, while girls need more physical affection and distraction.

Victoria Sakhno

Child's emotional development occurs from birth. First, the baby learns to experience and express his emotions, and later to control them and manage his emotional state. The development of these capabilities occurs in parallel with the physical, and. However, emotional development often receives less attention than other areas.

The foundations of social competence that a child acquires during the first five years are related to his emotional well-being and influence the child's ability to adapt to school and form successful relationships throughout life. Later, these same social-emotional skills are necessary for the formation of strong friendships and family relationships, and the ability to work in a team.

Let's look at the main steps emotional development of the child, through which every baby goes through and we will analyze what you should pay special attention to for the successful development of the emotional sphere.

Emotional development of a child at 1 year

At the age of one year, the child learns to recognize and manage his feelings. He experiences a wide range of emotions and can throw a tantrum if he is very tired or upset. He also shows emotions through laughing, screaming, crying and even biting. One-year-old babies are already beginning to show autonomy and can say a categorical “No!” to an adult’s proposal and insist “I do it myself!” in performing tasks that are not yet available to them. During this year, the child experiences a wide range of emotions: love, joy, anger, fear, sadness, disappointment, etc.

At this age, the child acts impulsively, but with the help of an adult he is already learning to manage his emotions. For example, he may go for a stuffed bunny when he's upset to help him calm down. He is strongly attached to significant adults and enjoys being around them. The baby actively observes the emotional reactions of other people and draws conclusions based on the facial expressions of adults. For example, while climbing the stairs on the playground, he looks back at his mother, looking for approval or warning in her facial expression.

Emotional development of a child at 2 years old

Two-year-olds begin to take an interest in the company of other children. They like to play side by side, but they do not play together because they are not yet mature enough for group games. When conflicts arise, adults must intervene to prevent aggression and teach the child appropriate behavior. It is still difficult for a baby to manage emotions. Favorite toys can help 2-year-olds cope with new situations or strong emotions.

Trusting relationships with other adults and children with whom the baby often plays expand. Understanding of the language of emotions increases. It is easier for a child to cope with emotions when they are named, and the adult recognizes the child's emotional reaction. Strong disappointment can also provoke hysterics.

Emotional development of a child at 3 years old

At three years of age, a sense of individuality and personal preferences begins to develop. The kid begins to say: “Look, this!” Able to determine other people's feelings based on tone of voice and facial expression. Understands that the feeling has a reason, and can reason something like this: “The girl was upset because she lost her favorite toy.” Three-year-olds still need adults to feel safe when they play or explore the world around them.

From this age, children begin to build friendly relationships with each other. They are interested in cooperative and role-playing games. When conflicts arise, children still continue to seek adult help to resolve the situation. They continue to learn simple alternative, non-aggressive ways to resolve conflicts, and are able to agree to a compromise in a controversial situation. At the age of three, children are already able to empathize with others and show participation. So, a child can hug and stroke another baby, feel sorry for him if he is upset about something, and offer him his favorite bear to calm him down as quickly as possible.

At three years old, a child copes with his emotions better and better, but you shouldn’t expect him to react like an adult. The crisis of three years comes, and the baby, although determined to please his parents, begins to show aggression, self-will, stubbornness, and negativism. This is a period of personality formation and separation of oneself from adults. Having passed it, the child will become more independent, his self-esteem will be formed, and the baby will be ready for new stages of development.

Emotional development of a child at 4 years old

At four years old, a child is able to calmly tolerate the long absence of an adult. The baby is getting better at coping with stress on his own or talking through the problem. Increasingly, he expresses his own point of view and his preferences regarding a certain situation. The child begins to compare himself with others.

Do you want to play with your child easily and with pleasure?

At four years old, the child continues to understand the causes of feelings and begins to understand that different people can feel different emotions in the same situation. The game remains the main tool with which the baby simulates various situations and tries out different options for solving a problem. This helps him gain experience in positively resolving conflict situations and better understand and control his emotions.

You can see options for playing games to develop the emotional sphere in this video:

Four-year-olds are increasingly interested in developing friendships with peers and trying to please them. The child successfully joins a group of other children, actively initiates and participates in group games. In controversial situations, he offers solutions to the problem, while still expecting help from adults.

Emotional development of a child at 5 years old

At five years old, a child can manage feelings and situations with greater independence. He uses increasingly complex speech patterns to name his feelings and the reason for them. For example, he may reason: “I kind of want to ride on this swing, but I’m scared because it’s high.” Also reasons deeply to demonstrate awareness, understanding, and concern for others. For example, he approaches a child whose building has collapsed and says: “Don’t be upset, Masha. Now I’ll help you build a new house, and we can play together.”

The child becomes increasingly aware of his skills and increases self-esteem by showing off new skills. The child uses his physical, creative and cognitive resources in a crisis situation. Able to calm down independently and control the expression of his emotions.

Loves to communicate with other children and adults. At this age, the child already has a wider repertoire of skills for “joining a group.” Plays more complex and lengthy group games, including performances. Continues to establish and maintain friendly relationships with peers, seeks confirmation of friendship, asks “Are we friends?” Five-Year Plans use a variety of negotiation and compromise options to resolve conflicts. However, from time to time they also face difficulties and need help from adults.

The task of parents throughout the preschool period is:

• teach your child to identify their emotions,
• control them and express them in socially acceptable ways,
• show non-aggressive ways to resolve conflict situations,
• Help your child establish and maintain friendships.

All these skills do not come at once and in full; a child will master them only at school age. But their targeted development and help from parents will help the child develop his own and be successful in different areas of life.

How do you deal with the emotional development of your kids? Tell us in the comments!