#Emotion wheel pdf full

Even though everyone’s body cues are just a little bit different, researchers in Finland found that for most of us, the felt sensation of any specific emotion is pretty similar from individual to individual. For example, a particular twisting of our gut is the nuanced version of anger we call irritation or a certain sort of heaviness in the chest is sadness. With this catalog, humans can – in a split second and without conscious thought – understand specific embodied, emotional experiences. Over time and through countless interactions that increase in complexity, children internalize an entire catalog of emotions and their corresponding body-sensations. Or, they saw our wide-eyed panic at the appearance of a new person as they named and soothed our “fear.” Way back, an attuned caregiver noticed our eyes welling up with tears and affirmed our “sadness” as they comforted us. When we can easily name an emotion we’re feeling, it’s because we’ve had a lifetime of practicing. And when kids get good, attuned care, they feel safe, connected, and able to grow.ĭeveloping emotional regulation skills on the inside and language skills to communicate with the world outside ourselves improves – for all of us, not just kids – the capacity to participate fully in healthy relationships, seek care when we need it, and grow into kind empathic individuals.Many emotional experiences, researchers at Columbia University have shown, start in the body before moving into awareness. Kids who can describe feelings to peers and adults actually give those people the information they need to care well for them, and through developing experiences of good-care-getting, we become better at care-seeking, which is correlated to improved mental health. In other words, kids who can describe what they are feeling can communicate those feelings to peers and adults. Helping kids develop a robust vocabulary to describe emotions may help them communicate their emotions, which has been linked to improved social support seeking.

Even the language we use about emotions in the presence of children tends to be extra simplified: “happy, sad, bad, etc.” For young children, just developing language and their ability to describe inner states, this extra-simple language is appropriate.Īs kids grow, though, one key task of educators, parents, and caregivers is helping kids develop the ability to check in with themselves, notice what they are feeling, and express those feelings appropriately. Too often, we don’t provide kids a lot of space to have and express complex emotions. Using an emotion wheel with kids can help kids develop an increasing awareness of emotion and a wider vocabulary of language for expressing their own emotions. The particular organization and kid’s creation of additional feelings they identify can help provide unique insight for teachers, parents, or mental health providers to connect with kids and young teens. The exercise of placing emotions in the appropriate category builds both linguistic skills and emotional-developmental awareness. Once the pepperoni-shaped feelings labels are cut out, you can collaboratively create a custom feeling wheel.Next: Cut out each of the preprinted pepperonis and invite kids to add other feelings by writing them in the extra pepperoni shapes provided.First: Invite kids, teens, or families to color the pepperonis and the pizza crust.Integrate this resource into your classroom lesson plan, therapy session, or family intervention, with the following steps:

#Emotion wheel pdf full

The full color pizza-themed emotion wheel, a part-color wheel, and a black-and-white version are included with the interactive two-page worksheet in this resource developed for teachers and parents of children and teens ages 5 to 15.