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Emotional intelligence: 5 games that will help your child develop it and improve their English
In the modern world, emotional intelligence is considered to be as important as IQ
The ability to recognise your emotions correctly and manage them is the foundation of a happy life. In some European countries, like Switzerland and the Netherlands, for instance, Emotional Intelligence (EI) lessons are implemented into the school syllabus. Education in other countries has not come this far yet, but we can help our children develop their EI ourselves. The most efficient way of doing so is through games.
Do you want to make it twice as useful? Pick games that will also help your child improve their English.
Happy box
Put the “happiness artifacts” into a box. These can be items that remind you of happy moments spent together. The shell from the seashore you visited, the flower from granny’s garden, the feather that you found on a walk the other day.
How was your day?
Prepare cards with emojis of different emotions and label them in English: sad, angry, happy, curious etc. In the evening, before bedtime, ask your child to describe what emotions they experienced during the day. Let them pick the appropriate cards. This game will teach them to be mindful and to recognise and accept their own feelings.
It’s written on your face
Recognising emotions is the key element of EI. When choosing books, give preference to ones where pictures convey the personality of each character. Ask your child to describe what the characters are feeling. For example: I’m happy, I’m so excited, I’m overjoyed. Or I’m feeling down, I’m unhappy, etc.
Ask them what clues made them guess how the characters were feeling. Direct their attention to the position of the eyes, eyebrows, corners of the mouth and other facial expression cues.
Emotions rainbow
Together with your child, imagine that the seven strongest emotions have their own colour. And that is why the world is so colourful! Draw your own rainbow assigning an emotion to each colour and label them in English.
Mimes
Write down words on cards. A player gets a word and they have to explain it using gestures and facial expressions. Other players can ask questions and try to guess what the word is. The player can only answer yes, no or maybe. It’s a popular international game that requires players to try to understand each other non-verbally. By watching someone trying to explain a word, children are developing their emotional intelligence.
Psychologists say that developing emotional intelligence begins at the moment of birth, when a baby sees the parents smiling and learns to smile back at them. This continues every day, if the parents are involved in the life of their child and don’t dismiss their child’s emotions and feelings. So if you want to develop your child’s EI, you need to start with yourself. Accept your own emotions and track your emotional state. And then everyone will be happy!
The Novakid online English language platform for children is aimed at developing oral skills. Thanks to the combination of modern teaching methods, children learn to speak about themselves and their emotions in English from the very first lesson.
Colourful characters guide children through the syllabus and “help” with homework, and the professional teachers make sure that each child is excited and happy before every lesson!
