Emotion Cards – Downloadable PDF with Ideas for Activities
Talking about emotions with children is vital. It helps them to be able to recognise a range of emotions, to connect with the feelings these emotions might create in their body and to increase their confidence in their capacity to put their feelings into words.
I like to make my own resources to use in therapy sessions because it allows me to adapt them to the needs and the understanding of the child. It also gives me a little bit of a chance to be creative which is always fun!
These emotions cards can be used in numerous different ways, in the home, in one-to-one therapy, other forms of direct work with children and in the classroom.
If you are working one to one I find it’s always best to take turns. This takes the pressure off the child and allows the child to see that you are comfortable talking about emotions. Obviously be careful to maintain boundaries and not overshare.
Here are some ideas for activities:
- Have the child take a card at random (or choose one) and ask them to act out the emotion for you to guess. This is great for active children who struggle to stay still. By asking questions you can help them get more in touch with how they experience the emotion. For example ask about where in the body they feel the feeling.
- Ask them to chose a card and see if they can think of the last time they felt this feeling. Ask them about the memory. This allows children to start talking about their emotions without feeling any pressure, they will only share what they are comfortable talking about.
- Lay all the card out in two rows, one for the positive emotions and one for the negative emotions. Ask the child to chose 3 negative emotions they would like to feel less of and 3 positive emotions they would like to feel more of. This can help with beginning to formulate some goals and also to generate more discussion.
These are a few ideas but there are lots more. I’d love to hear how you use them so share any ideas in the comments section below.
Jo Atkinson – NLP4kids Therapist and Parenting Coach
newcastlechildtherapy.nlp4kids.org
Love these!
Thank you for sharing.
Glad you like them. I’ve had to reduce the file size to put them on the website, I don’t think there is any loss of quality but if there is send me an email and I’ll send you the uncompressed PDF.