What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence commonly known as EQ is a relatively new field of psychology. Emotional intelligence means the ability for a person to access, influence, and conclude our emotions and also the emotions of other people around us.
The term emotional intelligence was first made popular by Daniel Goldman with his book Emotional Intelligence and since then many researchers have begun studies in this new field of psychology. Since then, we have understood a lot more about emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence can be broken into 4 separate entities namely
1. Empathy: the ability for a person to be able to perceive the emotions of others around him/her and acknowledge those feelings.
2. Relationships: the ability of a person to be able to handle negotiations and mediations.
3. Self-awareness: the ability for a person to understand his/her feelings, know what they mean, and acknowledge these feelings.
4. Handle Emotions: the ability for a person to manage and handle their personal feelings responsibly and accurately depending on the situation.
Since every one of us handles each emotion differently under different situations, it is also the reason why researchers are finding it difficult to measure emotional intelligence accurately.
Over the years, certain rules in emotional intelligence seem to apply to the majority of us though. And we can train ourselves to be better equipped to handle these emotions when it comes. Training your emotions takes time and being self-aware of them.
Unlike IQ where it is innate, some people are just born to be geniuses. Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be developed. Emotions were not even implanted in us when we were still a baby or in the mother’s womb. It is through the interactions with our environment and the people that we develop these emotions.
Raising ‘Emotional Intelligence Through Play
Every day, children face mental and emotional challenges that require patience, understanding, and good judgment. How can parents teach their children to cope with this complex world?
Many Emotional Intelligence activities focus on developing positive social skills for children and young teens to reduce conflict and increase their self-esteem. Here are a few of the skills that some emotional intelligence games teach:
Assertiveness: This involves expressing one’s desires, opinions, and ideas in a tactful way to avoid hurting the feelings of others.
Active listening: This aims at improving empathy through frequent eye contact and the use of gestures and verbal cues to encourage open communication.
Anger management: This concerns techniques to increase self-control. Children learn how to cool down and explore alternative behaviors.
How Am I Feeling Today? Chart
One of the most important things to understand about Emotional Intelligence is that it can’t be learned ONLY through reading. There are courses, and videos, that children watch a video or can take. One of the best things about it is that no matter what situation children are in, or what circumstance, increasing their Emotional Intelligence skills will help them over time in the long run. They’ll become more aware of what’s going on around them, and the things they couldn’t quite grasp before. They’ll also become far more knowledgeable about what’s going on with other people, and isn’t that always the most difficult thing to figure out?
Be sure to check out these Additional PDF resources from the Ohio Government that offer over 100 pages of extra emotional intelligence activities for kids and teens.
Emotional Intelligence Activities
Comment down below on your thoughts about emotional intelligence and why you think it’s important or not.
