Helping Toddlers with Emotions Decreases Future Behavioral Challenges

Toddlers are somewhat notorious for their emotional extremes – they can be gloriously happy one minute and over-the-top upset the next.  Much of this has to do with all of the change that their little brains are undergoing in those early years, coupled with the fact that toddlers don’t have the life experience, context, or vocabulary just yet to be able to identify and express all of those emotions.  So it makes sense that helping toddlers understand and articulate their emotions could significantly reduce emotional outbursts and upset.

Researchers at Michigan State University found that a simple parenting strategy, called “emotion bridging,” can do just that – help toddlers understand and even label, all of those powerful feelings, with the end result being fewer behavioral problems.

emotion bridging and the power of music

Emotion bridging is a straightforward, three-step process:

  • labeling the emotion
    • sad, happy, upset, mad, etc.
  • putting it into context
    • feeling this because of that
  • making a relevant connection
    • “Remember when you felt [emotion] because of [situation/experience]?”

It’s important to note that while the process is simple, it does happen over time, with lots and lots of short conversations about feelings and emotions.  It is through these many conversations that toddlers develop the depth of experience and a wider vocabulary for understanding and expressing their feelings, needs, and emotions through words, rather than through outbursts.

Another wonderful tool for helping toddlers identify and deal with their emotions is music.  Music can be used as an emotion bridging tool by giving an opportunity for talking about emotions or for expressing those feelings through song, dance, or rhyme.

Six ways to use music as an emotion bridging tool:

  • Sing a lullaby to your toddler as you cuddle and rock together.  Talk about breathing deeply and feeling calm.
  • Dance to some upbeat, feel-good music with your child.  Label all of the different ways to move and show how happy you feel.
  • Do a slow waltz around the room together.  Ask your child how dancing like this makes him/her feel.  Tell them how it makes you feel to dance together.
  • Substitute other words for “happy” in the song “If you’re happy and you know it…”  Have fun making faces that match the word.
  • Sing a favorite song with a sad face, and then sing it again with a happy face.  Repeat the same song with a mad face, then a calm face.  Continue with other emotional opposites.
  • As you listen to different kinds of music, talk about the songs in emotional terms – happy, silly, crazy, sad, calm, etc.  (You might even create a specific playlist for purposes of this discussion.)

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Visit a Kindermusik class and experience firsthand how to use music to support a child’s emotional development.

 

Contributed by Theresa Case who loves welcoming toddlers – big emotions and all! – into her award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in beautiful Greenville, South Carolina.

One Reply to “Helping Toddlers with Emotions Decreases Future Behavioral Challenges”

  1. Great information here. I’ve also found that exploring commonly experienced emotions (sad, mad, happy, tired) at times when they aren’t being experienced is a helpful way to teach children, specifically toddlers, how to express themselves. When you have a toddler express how he or she feels when experiencing sadness through movement and sound, it teaches them to isolate that feeling. This later helps them make the distinction that experiences of anger or sadness are temporary.

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