Nursery Equipment: Emotions - In the mood

A child's early years are steeped in emotion. One minute, they can be on top of the world; the next, their happiness can quickly turn to anger or frustration. They may have become embroiled in a fight over a toy; they may lack the co-ordination skills to complete a task to their own satisfaction; or they may be dealing with deeper issues in the home environment. But learning how to recognise and manage emotions is an important part of growing up. Practitioners clearly have a crucial role to play in helping children to understand their own and others' feelings, but where do resources fit in?

What practitioners need to recognise, says early years consultant Jennie Lindon, is that children's emotional maturity will come largely through their play and daily exchanges with 'emotionally literate' adults acting 'in the now'.

'A young child's ability to understand feelings within an actual event is often underestimated, whereas their ability to think and talk about feelings later and in the abstract is often overestimated,' she says.

'Emotion cards and other such products on the market only work well as a positive supplement when adults use ordinary opportunities that come up naturally during the day.'

Areas of daily provision that lend themselves particularly to an exploration of feelings are the story corner and role play.

'Children can connect with their feelings through the medium of stories, while pretend play is so powerful when children have the time to explore, to create stories and to connect with their emotions,' says Ms Lindon. 'However, resources - books, dolls or small-world figures - need to be good-quality and pitched at the right level for the child.'

That is particularly true when it comes to buying resources aimed specifically at exploring emotions.

Ms Lindon says, 'Children under the age of three should not be expected to learn about emotions from play resources. It does not make any developmental sense; they don't have that level of abstract thinking. Older threes may choose to express some feelings through a soft toy or puppet.'

Some of the products on the market can be a good supplement for learning, 'if used sensibly', she adds, but cautions against those that are conceptually far too advanced.

When buying, she says, 'Use your professional sense. If you look at a set of dolls or photos or cartoons and you can't work out what it's supposed to be depicting, don't buy it.'

WHAT TO BUY

Books

Joy, sadness, frustration, hopefulness, disappointment, boredom, excitement are all to be found in a good collection of picture books. When choosing books, Ms Lindon cautions against stories where good characters or plot are elbowed out of the way by a blunt message about 'good' behaviour or attempts to teach emotions.

'Sometimes children may be supported to express feelings of sadness or confusion when faced with changes or loss in their lives,' she says. 'It is unpredictable what a child will take from good-quality books, but sometimes a story works well alongside, not instead of, personal conversation with a child.'

Where books can work, however, is in preparing children for significant events. Early years consultant Opal Dunn says non-fiction books about visits to the doctor or the dentist have their place, as they 'set the scene' for children to start talking about their experiences and their fears, 'while at the same time reliving their experiences and coming to terms with their emotions'.

She adds, 'Through sharing the pictures and text, children can find out about fear in a way that is exciting without it being a threat or real danger, as the experience is contained.'

Visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/REALBOOK NEWS issue 9_0.pdf for a list of recommended books on emotions.

Early Excellence, a training and resource centre, puts together bespoke Story Sacks to support children in acknowledging their feelings. Frog in Love by Max Velthuijs is the story of a green frog and a white duck who love each other, which illustrates that love knows no boundaries. The collection costs £19.24 from www.earlyexcellence.com.

Puppets

Puppets provide children with the freedom to talk when they are unsure about things. They represent different customs and traditions, which is useful when teaching children to value and respect people who are different from them.

Rhian Absalom, reception class teacher at Frederick Bird Primary School in Coventry, recommends Expression Puppets, a set of three two-sided puppets with six emotions, (£30.30, Wesco, www.wesco-group.com), for discussing feelings.

She says, 'The use of puppets is a great way to discuss the effects of positive and negative behaviour. Rather than saying a child has been hurt by another in the class, a puppet can be used as the victim.'

Peter Lockey, director of Puppets by Post (www.puppetsbypost.com), believes that puppets can be a way to engage 'even the shyest of children'. He says, 'Puppets offer a pressure-free space to children: they will often talk to the puppet and tell it their worries, problems and secrets, but find it much harder to voice these feelings to the adult.'

He recommends the Rabbit in Lettuce (£24.95), a hand puppet that pops out of the lettuce that surrounds him. 'When the child stops talking, the rabbit disappears. We find that children are captivated by it and want to keep talking to him,' he says.

The Expression Mitt (£5.99, Puppets by Post) is another useful visual aid to help young children talk about their feelings.

Persona dolls

Resources that children believe in and feel they can relate to, such as persona dolls, encourage children to freely express their ideas and feelings. Babette Brown of Persona Doll Training says practitioners bring the dolls to life by giving them their own personas, for example, cultural and family backgrounds and personalities.

'Children develop strong bonds with them,' she explains. 'They share their joys and empathise with them when they are sad. The stories enable practitioners to tackle difficult issues such as cultural differences, name-calling and exclusion from play.

'For example, we used them in a school where children were not including a little girl who used a wheelchair in their games. They were worried, scared and unsure how to respond to her. The teacher told stories about a persona doll called Emily to help them see that although she uses a wheelchair, she was able to do many of the things they could do. Having the opportunity to voice their feelings and ask questions in a safe and supportive environment helped, and they began including Linda in their games.'

A persona doll, priced at £60, is available from www.persona-doll-training.org.

A BOX FULL OF FEELINGS

Diane Sim, nursery manager at Cherry Tree Pre-school in Blackburn, Aberdeenshire, stumbled upon A Box Full of Feelings, inspired by Ferre Laevers, director of the Research Centre for Experiential Education at the University of Leuven, Belgium, when studying for her BA in Childhood Practice at the University of Aberdeen.

The box, which is built around four basic feelings (happy, sad, angry and afraid), is designed to support the social-emotional development of children aged two to seven. It contains pictures with stories; multicultural finger puppets; masks; emotion cards; a spinning wheel of pictures and a CD of emotional music.

Diane says, 'It has been hugely beneficial in helping the children to express anger, an emotion that they have the most difficulty expressing. I used the scenarios in the picture cards and the puppets to express which and why issues of anger arise. The children then expressed their feelings of anger through drawings, playing games and drama using the masks.'

She adds, 'They understand that it's not wrong to feel angry, but how they express it is either appropriate or inappropriate. We decided that stamping your foot and explaining why you are angry are acceptable. The children now put more thought into their actions and can express that destroying toys, tearing books or hurting their friends are unacceptable behaviours.'

Diane says that the box works best in small groups of no more than five, because the children are 'desperate to tell you what's inside their head'. The masks are good for the quiet children, she adds, who find it easier to speak up when their face is covered.

The box supports both practitioner and child. It enables the child to choose appropriate words and actions to express their emotions and gives the practitioner an arena in which to discuss them.

A Box Full of Feelings, priced at £125, is available through Speechmark Publishing, www.speechmark.net. The Hopla Box, a version of the box designed for under-threes (£125), is also available.