Loaded Weapon 1 movie Pretend play is a way for your child to experience and talk about a variety of feelings in a safe and fun environment. Through pretend play, your child can practice expressing how they’re feeling. It also allows them to think about and try to express how others are feeling. For example, when playing a game where the child is the “hero” they may express joy in saving the day, while the child playing the “bad guy” may express anger or defeat.
Play offers a way for children to learn adaptive skills, including understanding social cues from playmates (what does happy, sad, or scared look like), negotiating what is “fair” (taking turns as the good guy/bad guy), and expressing their feelings to peers and caregivers in a thoughtful way. Play also allows children to label their feelings and pretend what others may be feeling while playing. Not only does play give children an opportunity to explore and practice expressing different emotions, in my work, I have found that children’s ability to express emotions is linked to their creativity.
There are many ways to encourage a child to express emotions in their play. Here are some suggestions to use with your child. Let us know what you think!
- Narrate and comment on your child’s play and label emotions that are appropriate. For example, “He looks really happy now that he’s won the race!”
- If your child is younger, they may benefit from you demonstrating what some emotions look like while playing. For example, using a higher pitch voice and perhaps jumping up and down to show “happy.”
Stealing Beauty release Ask questions like “I wonder how they feel?”
- Give your child a prompt, such as suggesting you make up a caring story about a boy/girl that takes a doggy for a walk or a sad story about a boy/girl that lost their favorite toy.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:44 am
[...] Some children have difficulty expression emotion. A recent article suggests some ways to help children express emotions through make-believe [...]