Model emotional literacy (Early Childhood)

teaching practice

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Early Childhood

Helps students to

feel secure and included

identify and respond to emotions

regulate emotion

Helps teachers to

respond to children's emotions

support emotional development

Summary

Educators play a key role in helping young learners to develop emotional literacy, which is the ability to identify, understand, and respond to one’s emotions. Some learners, particularly neurodivergent learners, may find it challenging to recognise and understand their own emotions and the emotions of others. By building positive relationships, creating supportive environments, and explicitly teaching emotional literacy, educators can promote social emotional development and reduce unexpected behaviours.

Emotional literacy enables all children to understand that the emotion they feel is neither good nor bad, and to understand how to process and express emotions in a healthy way. This creates empathy and kindness within your learning environment.

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) National Quality Standards (NQS) related to this practice

Element 5.1.1: Positive educator to child interactions

Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident and included.

Element 5.2.1: Collaborative learning

Children are supported to collaborate, learn from and help each other.

Element 5.2.2: Self-regulation

Each child is supported to regulate their own behaviour, respond appropriately to the behaviour of others and communicate effectively to resolve conflicts

For further information, see ACEQA’s National Quality Standard page

Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) outcomes related to this practice

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

For further information, see ACEQA’s Approved learning frameworks page

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Preparing to teach

The ability to identify, understand, and express emotions develops over time and is a critical skill that adults can actively help foster. Plan to foster the child’s:

emotional vocabulary (verbal and non-verbal)
identification of the full range of emotions
communication of emotional experiences to others (parents/carers, peers, and educators)
recognition of situations that evoke these emotions
recognition of others’ emotions (peers and adults)

By intentionally teaching children to identify, understand and express emotions, you:

expose learners to a rich vocabulary for expressing feelings (verbal and/or nonverbal)
teach your learners about empathy for others
assist learners to understand ways to express their emotions.

It works better if:

you use a strength-based approach to help the child identify, understand and express their emotions
you consider learner level of development and communication skills; emotions are abstract concepts so use visual supports (photos, pictures or video) where possible
you are working with parents/carers and specialists in developing goals and strategies for the child that can be used across environments and people
you start by teaching universal primary emotions (e.g., happy, sad, angry) to establish a base understanding before continuing to secondary emotions (e.g., jealous, embarrassed)
you use different strategies to teach about emotion (e.g., visual, oral, movement)
strategies for managing challenging feelings are taught while the learner is calm.

It doesn’t work if:

strategies are taught during times of distress; we all have trouble learning when we are very stressed or upset
the learner has interoception needs and may struggle to recognise body clues when they are feeling emotion
your explanation of the feeling and associated events is not developmentally appropriate, or the learner cannot understand the emotion being taught
emotional dysregulation is regarded as a deficit or problem

In the classroom

How do I do it?

Throughout the day

Model responding to, and regulating emotions (e.g., taking deep breaths when frustrated)
Label emotions in context, use nonverbals to show the emotion and describe how learners can express their feelings
Encourage learners to label their own emotions (verbal and/or nonverbal)
Observe peers’ emotions with the child (“Look, they’re all laughing. They look happy”)
Sing songs, read stories, and role-play in relation to a variety of feeling words.

Example:

A child can’t find their favourite toy they had brought from home and is becoming upset. You can support the child by saying, “You look sad by not being able to find your toy. I feel sad too when I can’t find something I want.” This labels the emotion and models using the word 'sad' for the feeling the child is experiencing, as well as showing the child that what they are feeling is normal for the situation they’re in. You can then model some positive coping strategies for the learner, such as looking for another toy or asking other children if they have seen the toy. “It’s okay. Let’s ask if anyone has seen your car”.

Use the EYLF Planning Cycle to model emotional literacy

Observe: how the child expresses and regulates their emotions
Assess: ask parents/carers and any specialists about the strategies they currently use to support the child’s emotional literacy and what works well
Plan: how to intentionally teach children to understand and regulate their emotions throughout the day and set goals with the team of educators, parent/carer and other specialists
Implement: your plan of teaching emotional literacy throughout the routines and activities of the day with all the education team
Evaluate: the impact of strategies on the child’s interactions, behaviour and wellbeing

How do I know if it’s working?

Children enjoy secure and stable relationships with educators
Children are building social and self-regulation skills through interactions with their peers and educators
Educators observe and respond to early signs of emotional dysregulation
Educators have a ‘toolkit’ of calm co-regulation strategies they can implement for all children
Educators have established and maintained a strong partnership with parents/carers to support consistent approaches to the child’s development of emotional literacy
Educators have the knowledge, skills and confidence to support children’s emotional regulation

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Model emotional literacy (Early Childhood)

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Related Practices

This practice is from the core research project