Emotional literacy

I'd like to share the most fantastic discussion I had with Pauline Lawson from EmotionALL. Click here to watch it on my YouTube channel.

One of my key takeaways was the importance of teaching children (at an age and ability appropriate level), how their brain works. So that when children get angry or anxious, they can understand that it is their 'meerkat' (aka the amygdala) and they can engage another part of their brain the 'owl' (aka the pre frontal cortex) and talk to the owl rather than the meerkat! It is also helpful for parents and teachers to understand that they should never try to talk to the meerkat! But the child and parents/teachers can learn strategies to soothe the meerkat. You'll have to watch the video and then it will all make sense!

My other major takeaway was the part about punitive, permissive and positive parenting. I can see that from a personal perspective, I can fall into unhelpful permissive parenting sometimes in an attempt not to be punitive but actually what children need is positive parenting with boundaries to feel safe - we're all learning!

Anyway, I hope you find it as informative and helpful as I did. If you'd like to receive Pauline's helpful newsletters then you can sign up here. 

Hanna