CHCCN302AProvide Care for Children

Responding to the emotional needs of children

Stages of emotional development - Erickson• Trust vs mistrust – approximately 0 – 18 mths

Developing sufficient trust in the world to explore it – needs warm, loving interaction

• Autonomy vs shame and doubt – approx 2 – 3 yrsDeveloping feeling of control over behaviour; realising that intentions can be carried out – need support, encouragement, imitation

• Initiative vs guilt – approx 3 - 6 yrsDeveloping a sense of self through identification with parents & a sense of responsibility for own actions

• Industry vs inferiority – approx 6 – 11 yrs Developing a sense of self –worth through interaction with peers – need support, identification with family, peers etc

Why emotional outbursts?

How do we help children deal with their emotional feelings?

Responding to emotional outbursts• At times, children experience intense emotions. • You may find all the children have extreme mood swings -

angry and disruptive, withdrawn, upset and crying• Need to respond with sensitivity and empathy while

ensuring safety of others• What to do? Remove the child from the group & find a quiet

place where they can regain their composure• If child is beyond reason then remove other children from

the vicinity and wait for child to calm down

Emotion Post Trauma Video

Help children express emotions appropriately• Provide children with opportunities to express

emotions• Encourage children to draw how they are feeling• Help child to write a story about how they are feeling• Act out emotions through music and movement• Allow acting out of anger and other emotions during dramatic play• Encourage the use of miniatures and models to act out stories

containing anger• Talk about different feelings – help children to label the

feeling

• Read stories about other children in similar circumstances

Talk about feelings

• Many researchers believe that helping children talk about their emotions helps children distance themselves from the feelings they are experiencing

• This gives them some space to think about how they re feeling, and why they are feeling that way and what will happen because they are feeling like this (Kuebli, 1994).

• The way we talk about feelings will influence how they organise their own emotions and responses to those emotions.

• But first – help children identify and label feelings

Labelling Feelings

• Play matching faces with faceless figures engaged in social interaction

• Play card games where children are asked to pair opposite feelings

• Play charades where children are asked to act out feelings for other children to guess

Labelling Feelings

• Find faces and figures that represent specific feelings to use in collage and paste activities

Labelling Feelings

• Paste onto paddle-pop stick and make tiny puppets

Labelling Feelings

• Don’t forget the most powerful of all activities to assist children label their emotions:

MODELLING

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Help children talk about their feelings• After children can label a broad range of feelings

they can be encouraged to talk about their own feelings

• This may be difficult for children who have already learned that expressing their feelings is likely to result in in violence and abuse.

• It will take a lot of TRUST before children will be ready to talk about how they are feeling

Talking – school age

Once trust has been established, school age children can be encouraged to talk about things that make them happy, sad, angry, upset, excited, fearful, ashamed and so on

Talking – pre-schoolers

• Pre-school children and younger may need metaphors to help them talk about their feelings eg the weather – changeable, sometimes good & sometimes bad.

Children’s Style of Communication• Be sensitive to children’s style of

communication• Remember – trust is the key to

helping children overcome their difficulties

• Do not jeopardise the trust you have by being insensitive to their way of communicating.

Children’s style of communication• Listen to the words children are using to express

themselves• Use these same words in your interactions with

them• Be sensitive to non-verbal cues• Listen for children using storytelling as a form of

communicating their feelings. Use storytelling in responses to children

Children’s communication style

• Use active listening• Help children apply

problem-solving processes to their situation

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Monitor children for signs of distress• Observe children’s behaviour, play and social

interactions regularly for signs they may be experiencing distress

• Particularly monitor children with known trauma situations

• Changes in children’s behaviour could indicate further abuse or trauma or that the child’s ability to cope is waning.

• This is generally a signal that a referral to a specialist support service is necessary

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Good caregiving can make a difference!!

Inform children of change

• How do we cope with change? Do we like it to be introduced gradually?

• Children. Like most adults need time to adjust to change. They need time to process how it will effect then

• When change is external to the children’s service , it is not the role of the caregiver to inform the child.

• However, if it is internal change then it is the caregiver’s role to inform the children in plenty of time for them to become used to the idea.