Do your children, (either your own or those you work with or are responsible for), have difficulty communicating how they feel?

When working with children who have yet to develop the language for expressing emotion, I usually start with color. Asking kids to assign moods and feelings

with color helps them to understand and compare what they might be experiencing.

What color is angry to you?

What does frustrated look like?

How about silly?

Letting kids creatively construct their own color "charts" helps to identify emotions at a later date. There are no rules, no coloring in the lines. Colors may overlap, be combined, and include symbols, such as stars and exclamation points for emphasis.

Letting them be the boss of this exercise also helps them to feel in control of emotions that often feel hard to contain.

When trying this at home, offer your own color chart in comparison so your child may observe how someone else may view things differently and that there is no

right or wrong answer.

Emotional awareness requires a point of reference. Using color for kids I've found, is a helpful, empowering, and fun way to develop this skill.

Happy April,

Bring on the color...