Helping preschool aged children identify a range of emotions is a great place to start self-regulation training. In the video below, Sesame Street's Bert, helps John John "show" three different emotions: Sadness, Anger and Happiness. After you watch the video, see if your child can show you what "sad", "angry" or "happy" faces look like. Typically, after a child is able to identify a range of emotions, the self-regulation lessons expand to the following topics*:
*These lesson ideas are from The Zones of Regulation® program.
- reading their own body’s signals to decide what emotions they are feeling
- understanding that their behavior affects how other people feel and think about them
- naming triggers or "stressors" that impact their behaviors
- utilizing strategies or tools to help regulate extreme emotions
- figuring out how to problem solve tough situations in the moment
*These lesson ideas are from The Zones of Regulation® program.
Parents: For more information about self-regulation see the handout below from the website www.parentingcounts.org
