Dealing with emotions and developing your child’s Emotional Quotient

Do you get upset and embarrassed when your child screams or melts down in public places? Though as parents our first reaction is to get irritated and give an unpleasant reaction, it’s important to remember that our children are still growing as emotional beings. We have to understand that every reaction from us counts to shaping their emotional intelligence.

The other day, I was reading about how emotional intelligence has an important role to play in the development of children. Experts say that it is as important or even more important than intelligence.  It made me think about the emotional development of my child and if I am doing my best to understand my child emotionally.

Understanding emotional development

While researching emotional development, I came across the five-step rule labeled as RULER thumb rule by Marc Brackett who is director of Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence.

  1. Recognizing – Check if your kid can recognize their feelings and desires.
  2. Understanding – Is your kid able to understand the source of feeling and the underlying reason?
  3. Labeling – Labeling or marking each feeling to a name is important. Like SAD, HAPPY, ANGRY.
  4. Expressing – Now how he/she narrates or expresses the feeling to you.
  5. Regulating Emotion – How the kid regulates the emotion in a diplomatic or synchronized way based on social acceptance.

It is supposed to work well among kids who are optimally developed and thus do better in academics, social interaction, and career success. In the long run, they are less aggressive and take measured decisions.

Boosting emotional development with nutrition

The foundation of good emotional and general intelligence lies in a fully-formed brain with the right dose of nutrition. As children see maximum brain growth during the initial years, it is important that their brain gets all the nutrition it needs. A nutrient called Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is particularly important as it acts as the building block of the brain. This omega-3 fatty acid is found in cold water fish, fish oil and some seeds. However, DHA might not be absorbed in required quantities from a regular diet.

To make sure my child gets the required dose of DHA, I have chosen to give her a daily dose of Enfagrow A+This fortified food has the required amount of DHA and is also rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, and calcium.

Emotional Quotient

 This nutrient matters to enhance the expansion of the cerebral cortex which is tied to intelligence and emotion control in a human being.

In a study, researchers studied two 2 groups of toddlers. One group of toddlers was given a supplemental dose of DHA while the other one was not. After six months. a psychometric test was conducted with activities such as running, painting, chess, movie watching, and narration. The study found that the group with supplemental DHA scored better on the following parameters:

  1. Expression of emotion
  2. Better narrating capacity
  3. Control on brain- control anger, aggression, remorse, and pain
  4. Steady and fitness.

It’s not surprising as DHA controls help develop parts of the brain tied with the following abilities:

  1. Intellectual
  2. Motor
  3. Emotional
  4. Communication

What can a parent do to ensure emotional development

Along with the right nutrition, how do you help your child develop emotionally through everyday interactions? To begin with, teach an emotional strategy to your child and stick to it. Help your child become independent in recognizing and coming to terms with emotions.

Recognize negative thoughts and emotion of your kid and connect those

Negative emotions can be a teaching moment. You can use them to connect, heal, develop and shape. It is hard for a kid to g control over their desires and emotion. Listen with patience, show empathy, be supportive. Use words like “I understand your reason for being angry” or “I can feel your disappointment”. When you start using such terms, children feel confident and open up easily. Do not be judgmental. Let them put a word to their emotion and justify it with meaning.

Set limits and help them sort themselves

You can direct your kids to become emotionally autonomous. Sometimes this can mean setting limits on how they choose to become. For example, you can teach your kids that being disrespectful to anyone is not acceptable. This can help them find an alternative way out of their emotional struggle. Teach them moral values through everyday examples. This should be done from the very beginning.

Do not underestimate or offend your child by criticizing or overpowering. Be gentle and empathetic. Open up your mind and have an open line of communication. After all, you want your kids to be the best version of themselves.

© Ruchi Verma

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Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruchie Verma (WigglingPen) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Disclaimer – This article is an advisory piece. Before you manipulate your diet habit kindly consult a medical practitioner or nutritionist.

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Ruchi Verma

Certified parenting teen practitioner, multiple Award winner, mother of two active kids believes in sharing the right source of information to readers which could help them in every possible way!!

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35 Comments

  1. Bang on Ruchi. I completely agree open line of communication with your child is the most important. I have a preteen at home and trust me handling his emotions is super tough. It takes all my patience to handle him.

  2. Its always important to monitor emotional growth and balance of kids from the beginning. This is a very insightful post for parents

  3. You are so right here. Good nutrition plays a very important role in a child’s development.
    I too trust Enfagrow for all the nutritional needs of my kids.

  4. Enfagrow is best for EQ and we needkids who are EQ strong n not IQ strong

  5. Loved reading the blog a lot of points mentioned are something that we all need to understand as a parent, will definitely share the same with my friends too

  6. Emotional development in the child is as important as any other growth. This is a great article.

  7. Emotional development is very important in kids.. As a parent we must understand make their EQ strong n not IQ strong. Enfagrow is best for EQ .

  8. I love reading this post Ruchie. You just hit the nail. Emotional intelligence is much important, yet neglected one. I love that ruler thumb rule. My son is young and I would surely practice this.

  9. DHA is the food for brain which can’t be obtained from the regular diet. Parents should understand this and buy a good product which meets this requirement in the child.

  10. True said dear.. All kids have different mentality. Handling them with proper growth is must. I am using this milk powder since a month. And trust me can see difference in my sons growth.

  11. Wow.. love that ypu have brought up such an important topic on emotional development .. DHA is so important and thankfully now its getting its due importance.

  12. Great post and I agree to ensure a proper emotional development of kids, is a huge ( and sometimes a difficult) responsibility for parents. you had shared really great tips, and enfagrow seems like a great brand, I am hearing a lot about this nowadays, thanks a lot for sharing detail info about it.

  13. DHA is indeed very important for brain development. It need to reach kids in required amounts.. Products like Enfagrow surely fullfil the requirement

  14. Indeed, building on emotional strength is must for kids , having an open line of communication, allowing them to take their decisions are important pointers.

  15. An essential topic on parenting. While I look out for the product, I will also make sure that I keep a watch out and follow these pointers.

  16. To raise up children is very important task. The children needs to grow emotionally and physically well. Some of nice tips i hv read

  17. We can’t ignore the role of DHA in a kid’s development. And we must make sure that our kid receives nice amount daily. Would try out Enfagrow for my kid too.

  18. Emotional development is equally important. But sometimes we ignore it. This is a very helpful article for parents.

  19. It’s a little less known fact that good nutrition effects the emotional quotient of a cold. Great post and really informative. Even my girls have Enfagrow which takes care of their nutritional requirements.

  20. Thank you for sharing thisthank you for sharing thisinformative Post with me and during without oil and I really feel it is important to notice each and every reaction of them this plays an important role in the growth and development.

  21. So important for parents to understand the need for emotional development in a child. And then to understand how to cater to it to ensure the best for their kid. In todays stressed world more awareness is required

  22. This is such an insightful post for parents. It will help them to balance the development specially emotional development. Nutrition indeed plays an important role too.

  23. Loved the blog it was damn insightful and helpful too, thank you for sharing, will definitely share the same with my friends too

  24. I agree it is important to have right kind of emotional quotient and it is even more important to develop emotional balance among the children. You have written almost everything on the topic in this post.

  25. Developing child’s EQ is very important . We normally focus on IQ but EQ is equally important. very insightful article.

  26. What a wonderful post, not many parents talk about their child’s emotional development whereas it is as important as their intellectual development. It is a must read for every parent.

  27. That looks like a great product. I never heard of it before though. Communication is so important. I totally agree with what you said in the beginning.

  28. Great post with amazing tips! Emotional intelligence is so important and we mothers need to focus on its development too

  29. This is so very important… Very informative post thanks for sharing it with us…

  30. these are really important tips that as parents we all need to understand and put in practice.

  31. Emotional Development is an important thing to look at. good bonding with parents, friends all help. brain nutrients like DHA are important for overall brain development of kids.

  32. Its true that emotional intelligence is imp and I have observed my kid’s behavior also. He interacts with people, and much popular in our locality 🙂
    And ya, DHA is very imp for child’s development. Thanks to Enfagrow!

  33. Earnestly I had no clue if diet too can impact emotional wellbeing of a kid. Thank you for the informative post my dear.

  34. Loved reading this blog. This is so important. And I got to know some new things ?

  35. Proper intelligence and emotional balance is right milestone for every child. A great post indeed

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