Feelings Wheel
Struggling to understand your child's emotions? A Feelings Wheel can help! This visual tool can expand your child’s emotional vocabulary with words for both basic and complex feelings. They'll learn the difference between "sad" and "disappointed," or "frustrated" and "angry."
The wheel also can act as a springboard for conversation. Point to different sections and ask your child to identify their feelings. This opens the door to discuss what caused the emotion and healthy ways to cope with it. The wheel even shows how emotions connect, helping them understand the complexity of their inner world.
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Overview
For: Parents and Caregivers
Ages: K-12
Resource Type: Activity
Related resources
Struggling to understand your child's emotions? A Feelings Wheel can help! This visual tool can expand your child’s emotional vocabulary with words for both basic and complex feelings. They'll learn the difference between "sad" and "disappointed," or "frustrated" and "angry."
By paying attention to how your body feels in different situations, you can start to recognize the physical signs of certain emotions. This worksheet can help parents and caregivers support children and teens—and themselves—in spotting and naming different emotions in their bodies.
This activity is designed for parents and caregivers to use themselves to navigate difficult emotions and can also be used with their children to help them navigate difficult emotions together. Using the Circles of Control tool as a family is beneficial for lowering stress, handling tough emotions, and dealing with difficult situations. This approach involves understanding what is within or beyond your control and creating an action plan to navigate through these emotions and situations.
Esta actividad está diseñada para que los padres y cuidadores puedan afrontar emociones difíciles y también puedan hacer esto con sus hijos para ayudarles a afrontar emociones difíciles juntos. Usar la herramienta Círculos de Control en familia es beneficioso para reducir el estrés, manejar emociones difíciles y afrontar situaciones difíciles. Este enfoque implica comprender lo que está dentro o fuera de su control y crear un plan de acción para navegar a través de estas emociones y situaciones.
Practicing positive self-talk can be a powerful tool to support mental health, both for you and for your child. When negative thoughts or emotions arise, try this simple exercise to shift the focus to positive self-talk. In the brief steps below, you can use the examples for yourself or for guidance in what to share with your child. Children (including teens) need scaffolding or examples to help guide them in their own processing.
Practicing positive self-talk can be a powerful tool to support mental health, both for you and for your child. When negative thoughts or emotions arise, try this simple exercise to shift the focus to positive self-talk. In the brief steps below, you can use the examples for yourself or for guidance in what to share with your child. Children (including teens) need scaffolding or examples to help guide them in their own processing.
Intense achievement pressure, particularly in affluent communities, can generate high levels of stress, anxiety, and/or depression in young people. As parents, we need to be mindful of how we contribute to this pressure. These questions from Harvard’s Making Caring Common can help parents be alert to red flags that they may be putting too much pressure on their child(ren) in the college admissions process.