Hello! I’ve found a very good book for helping children identify and understand their emotions! It’s called Understanding Myself: A Kid’s Guide to Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings by Dr. Mary Lamia.
Dr. Lamia is a clinical psychologist who wrote this book for children 8 years and up (parents can read the book to younger children), and it includes descriptions of emotions, explanations for why you feel them, and suggestions to help kids observe their own emotional behaviors — and the behaviors of their friends.
It’s a lively, interactive book: There are questionnaires, quotes from children talking about their own emotions, and sections that describe findings from emotion research. It’s a fun and useful book that will really help your children understand their emotions — and it will open up the discussion so that emotional awareness can become a normal part of your family’s conversations. Very nice!
People often ask me about creating a version of my book for children, or a version of the Language of Emotions Cards — and I’m thinking about it. For now, Understanding Myself is a wonderful resource, and our FREE Emotional Vocabulary List can support kids in developing a strong emotional vocabulary and a healthy sense of self-awareness.
Thank you, Dr. Lamia, for bringing empathy and accessible information about emotional awareness to a waiting world!
Karly
Hi Karla,
Thank you for recommending this book – I found it at my local library on Tuesday to share with my children. I definitely see strong empathic abilities in my kids, and I think this book will greatly help them in feeling, caring for and listening to their feelings.
It’s very interesting for me to observe myself with my kids – giving my children an emotional language and validating their feelings – as it also heals – and grows – something in me.
Thank you, again, for your work. This winter I listened to “The Language of Emotions” and it was greatly helpful to me. It clarified so many of the insights I had come into on my own, but that needed more fleshing out or a framework in which to make sense. Not only that, but on an emotional level, your program helped me feel deeply understood and validated, normalizing many of my experiences. In fact, I had such a strong, visceral reaction to your series, that at one point that I had to pull over off the road (I was listening while driving) to care for the feelings that were coming up.
So, I thank you with gratitude and appreciation (and relief!) for your work.
Warmly, Karly
Karla
Hi Karly,
I’m glad you found Dr. Lamia’s book. It’s so helpful! I’m also glad that my work has been supportive for you. We empathic people ahve to stick together!
K