EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is an important measure today given the realization that it impacts both adults and children in a significant way.
“Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them,” says Howard Gardner, the influential Harvard theorist.
Five major categories of EQ skills are recognized by researchers in this area.
- Self- Awareness: The ability to recognize an emotion as it “happens” is the key to your EQ. Developing self-awareness requires tuning in to your true feelings.
- Self-Regulation: You often have little control over when you experience emotions. You can, however, have some say in how long an emotion will last by using a number of techniques to alleviate negative emotions such as anger, anxiety or depression.
- Motivation: To motivate yourself for any achievement requires clear goals and a positive attitude.
- Empathy: The ability to recognize how people feel is important to success in your life and career.
Emotional Intelligence as part of a school curriculum has long-term impact. Yale has developed a teaching approach called RULER. RULER is an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER supports the entire school community in:
- Understanding the value of emotions
- Building the skills of emotional intelligence
- Creating and maintaining a positive school climate
RULER aims to infuse the principles of emotional intelligence into the immune system of each school, informing how students learn, teachers teach, families parent, and leaders lead.
Similarly, we believe that books are a great way to incorporate emotional intelligence, weaving it into storylines for parents and children to respond and engage with. All young children seem to be fascinated by books about emotions. It is mostly because mastering emotions is one of the biggest challenges of their young lives. It is important to help children understand emotions and to express them constructively. And there is no better tool to do that but through stories that have been carefully and lovingly crafted.
Sources:
https://www.rulerapproach.org/
https://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/emotional-intelligence/books
