Emotion Charades
Here's What To Do
Play a charades game with your child about expressing emotions.
Smile and make a happy face, and have your child guess your emotion. Change your emotion and have them guess again. (Don’t be afraid to exaggerate to help them guess!)
Now it’s your child’s turn. Let them make a face, and then try to name the feeling they’re acting out.
Take turns and see who can make the “best” happy, sad or excited face. Add more emotions as your child masters the basics.
Put PEER Into Action
Pause:
- Find a quiet place for you to sit together and take three deep breaths
Engage:
- “What face do we make when we are excited?”
- “Can you show me your biggest surprised face? How about a scared face?”
Encourage:
- “That’s a big smile! You are showing so much joy!”
- “I know that this can be hard; some emotions can be pretty complicated to act out; we can talk about the ways they’re the same or different from one another even if we’re not so great at acting them out!”
Reflect:
- “Which face did you like making the most?”
Not quite ready?
Gently guide your child by making a face first, then describing it while they watch. Act out the emotion with them as you exaggerate your facial expressions.
Ready for more?
Read a book or use pictures with faces showing different emotions. Point to each face and ask, “How do you think they feel?”
As your child masters this skill...
They will be able to recognize a range of emotions.