While previous years our Singapore education system has been placing heavy emphasis on IQ, it is evident that EQ (Emotional Quotient is also known as emotional intelligence) is highly sought after in the workforce.
Having a high EQ means your child has the ability to identify and manage his emotions, as well as the ability to recognize and influence the emotions of others.
A high IQ is a good thing, however, without the ability to translate and describe your ideas effectively across your peers and convince them to adopt your idea – a good idea is as good as going to waste. Also, companies value teamwork and good camaraderie in the workplace makes someone with a high EQ much more attractive to hire.
What Does It Mean To Be Emotionally Literate?
Emotional literacy is a child’s ability to figure out what their feelings are, accept them, organize them, and effectively manage these feelings. Emotional intelligence has a total of 6 components, which are:
• Self-perception
• Self-encouragement
• Mind-frame adjustment
• Compassion development
• Emotion
• Relationship management
To acquire literacy training, children undergo training. Just as they go to school to learn/to get taught, children are trained to know how to identify, separate, organize and regulate their feelings. Emotional literacy is important for children as it impacts their future. Inadequacies in emotional literacy negatively affect children in their future lives.
More and more educational professionals and psychologists are laying emphasis on the benefits of emotional literacy. They say that emotional literacy may be important in fixing and improving the learning abilities of children.
The state of Illinois in the United States of America has already taken strides in promoting emotional intelligence. In 2003 the state passed a bill that made emotional and social literacy is part of the school curriculum. Now, programs on emotional literacy are taught in many schools in the United States.
Studies have supported the fact that those skills that are of the emotional or social makeup are very effective in determining children’s physical and mental abilities. These studies have further proven that your kids’ level of emotional intelligence can affect their future. Whether it is work, at school, or inter/intra-personal relationships, your child’s health emotionally can predict how successful they will be.
How Can Parents Guide Their Children?
You may wonder if you can tutor your child concerning emotional intelligence at home. You may wonder if you need tuition yourself to teach your child EQ.
To answer these questions, yes, you can guide your children in learning emotional intelligence. However, you may not need a tutor or attend tuition sessions to learn emotional literacy to teach your children.
Emotional learning is a process that allows you and your kids to acquire a certain skill set. You and your kids learn what emotional literacy is, how to identify feelings, and know how to effectively deal with your emotions.
Emotional learning is a process that teaches you and your kids the skills that help you succeed in reaching set goals by dealing with your emotions. The thing is, you may already be teaching your child emotional literacy, and you wouldn’t know it.
Emotional literacy involves some steps that are basic, logical, and are really just what your common sense tells you. All you have to do is to be conscious of the steps you are taking in teaching them EQ. Make it a duty to guide your children in emotional literacy.
This means that, as parents in Singapore, you need to have a more active role in your kids’ lives. To guide your children in emotional learning, you need to:
• Help your kids recognize the different feelings they have, e.g. happiness
• Point out how they responded to those feelings, e.g. laughter
• What steps they took to counter a tense situation, e.g. taking a nap to relieve stress
• How to keep their impulses in check
• Teach them to be considerate of other people’s feelings
These are things you do all the time as parents. As you guide your children in emotional learning, get them involved with others. Let them interact with their peers. They should learn when to push and when to let go. They should learn how to be humble winners and gracious losers.
A good example is when your child is assigned to a team project, emotional intelligence can help him keep his emotions in check and identify when his team members are frustrated, burnt out, dissatisfied, or feeling other emotions that could impact their portion of teamwork. In those scenarios, your child will be able to offer help tactfully.
Teach your kids about managing anger, forgiving themselves and others, and how to be solution-providers. You can coach your kids emotionally by listening to them and agreeing with their views. Turn tantrums and stubbornness into a learning session. Don’t try to coerce or control your kids. Be gentle, patient and attentive.
Emotional Intelligence Is Essential For Children
EQ is essential for healthy growth in children. Emotional baggage is a real thing that can affect children too. Without the skills to identify, organize, and appropriately deal with their emotions, children can become like bombs waiting to go off. They bottle up issues inside them, shutting others out and stewing over things. Their mental and physical states can be greatly affected by their emotional state. Their social lives may suffer, as well as their academic and work lives.
When properly equipped with the knowledge and skills of emotional literacy, your kids can deal with problematic situations. Kids with a health EQ are happier; more stable; strong mentally and physically; and respect those around them. Their emotional intelligence has a direct effect on their future lives.
Studies have proven this, and many programs on emotional literacy are used in schools to help children manage their emotions. As parents, you have a role in teaching your children EQ. it starts from the home, after all.
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