Kids are most vulnerable to harmful video games and online content that can adversely impact their development of emotional intelligence skills. Today’s parents are facing new realities of raising kids addicted to using their tablets, smartphones, iPads, iPhones and battling potentially harmful content and increased Screen Time on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Roblox and Netflix. The biggest threat to many children’s mental health is online harmful content from media and video games.
While Congress and the Senate look to hold tech companies more accountable with new legislation, another important solution to counter harmful online content is prevention through teaching emotional intelligence and self-regulation to young children ages 2 to 8. Sandra M. Clifton, creator of the EQ and IQ Learning Curriculum & Academy for Young Kids and co-founder of the Positive and Mindful Parenting, says, ”Kids do better when they are capable of doing better with helpful instructions, emotional intelligence skills coaching, inspirational leadership and mentors, validation of emotions, and consistent positive encouragement.” She believes and stated, “Today’s education for young preschoolers, kindergartners, and primary school children must go beyond IQ and also prepare young children to be emotionally intelligent kids that are self-aware, self-regulate, understand social awareness, and empathy to be leaders and very successful in the future.”
These are the 5 Most Important Traits of High Emotional Intelligence Kids, according to the emotional intelligence experts at Emotional Intelligence Youth Leadership Academy and Positive and Mindful Parenting.com.
1. Emotional self-awareness: Young kids that are able to recognize an be mindful of their emotions and explain their emotions demonstrate high emotional self-awareness and emotional literacy. Boosting self-awareness can become a challenge for many young kids and it is suggested to learn Emotions Behavioral Zones like Thomas Clifton Spot Your Emotions and Feelings Zone Chart below to help very young learners understand emotions through emojis and color zones. Blue zone emotions include sick, tired, sad and tearful, lethargic; Red zone emotions include angry, rage, hitting, throwing things and out of control, disgusted, screaming and yelling, Yellow Zone includes excited, silly, worried, frustrated, Green Zone emotions include happy, calm, focused, and ready to learn.
2. Self- Regulation: Knowing how to manage your emotions and understanding coping skills to stay calm is very prevalent in kids with high emotional intelligence. self-management of your emotions. Kids that are self-regulated know their strengths and limitations if managing their emotions.
3. Empathy and awareness of the emotions of others: Sharing and understanding how others feel is part of developing social awareness. See the Thomas Clifton Chart for Coping Strategies for Self-Regulation to help kids and parents.
4. Social Interpersonal Skills: aka social awareness management, which is how well an individual understands the emotions of others and can communicate with others. High Social awareness for kids will enable them to be able to communicate with others in groups and work in teams with a high understanding of the strengths and limitations of other and collaborate with others to develop and execute goals in the best interest of the group.
5. Adaptive and Positive Growth Mindset: Kids need a flexible and adaptive mindset. It is wise to help children by having the grownup demonstrate a positive and flexible mind and integrate positive mantras. For example, a positive mantra is “I Can Manage Tough Emotions.”
“Parents must become the biggest influencers of their child and not social media,” says Sandra M. Clifton, MBA, author, editor, educator (Clifton Academy), mother of three, and emotional intelligence expert. This is a tough but important battle to win as emotionally intelligent children need positive and inspirational coaches, mentoring, and positive parents, which are invaluable in kids’ cognitive development. “Positive parenting is making sure to stay calm, maintain a positive attitude, and make sure to encourage, validate your child’s feelings and be willing to collaborate with your child to problem solve emotional challenges together, says Jomo Gamal Thomas, co-founder of the Positive and Mindful Parenting and the Smart Brain Train Academy. “ Children do better with coaching, inspirational leadership, mentoring and strong support systems to develop and boost their emotional intelligence and cognitive abilities,” said Sandra M. Clifton.
“Emotional intelligence isn’t just a regular skill: It’s a superpower for children and grownups,” said 8-year-old, bestselling and emotional intelligence book series author Jomo Jesús Thomas Suriel.
Self-awareness and management of emotions for children ages 2-8 Is an increasingly vital life skill that increases chances of academic success and future executive career success.
“Disconnected is the word I use for parents expecting more of a child than the child is realistically capable of doing. The most vital strategy for parents is to stay connected with their child’s emotions and repair relationships when they are Emotional intelligence is about being self-aware of your emotions and higher levels of emotional intelligence require high levels of self-awareness of their emotions, aware of the emotions of others, capable of self-regulation of their emotions and empathetic,” says Sandra M. Clifton.
“How can we expect more from children when we do not provide more to help them, emotional literacy is needed to educate and communicate with your child and develop emotional intelligence,” says Jomo Gamal Thomas.
Sandra M. Clifton suggests parents have their children read children’s emotional intelligence and mental health picture books like The Color Monster by Anna Llenas, The Emotions Volcano, and The Angry Vacuum by Jomo Jesús Thomas Suriel. These books engage, entertain, and educate children about identifying emotions and learning coping skills to resolve emotional challenges for children ages 2 to 8. The earlier children learn emotional awareness, the more they can control their emotions and self-regulate.
In The Emotions Volcano and The Angry Vacuum, there are themes about how overwhelming emotions cause a red volcano to erupt and school children to have a meltdown. The meltdown is caused by overwhelming emotions that are internal and become external because they are not calmed down before their temper erupts. The volcano is a metaphor for a meltdown kid that is having an explosion, implosion, disruption, eruption, or interruption because they are not able to cognitively process the challenges that they are tasked with solving and it leads to an outburst (i.e., explosion, tantrum, extreme outburst, meltdown, etc.)
”Emotional intelligence is a skill that we are not born with; it is something that we develop,” says Jomo Gamal Thomas.
“No one enters the world or leaves the world knowing everything. Unrealistic expectations often force children to melt down because they don’t have the right tools to process and solve the challenges that they are facing. According to emotional intelligence author Jomo Gamal Thomas, the best solution for developing and fostering emotional intelligence is identifying the five most important traits.
In conclusion, it is essential to identify and evaluate the 5 positive traits above, connect and validate your child’s emotions, provide positive mentorship and leadership, and practice and prepare for a positive and growth mindset. When possible, use books, videos, games and audio to demonstrate emotional intelligence solutions so that your child will be encouraged to envision and solve problems.
Editor
Sandra Clifton, MBA, is an educator, mother of three, emotional intelligence expert, author, entrepreneur, software developer, and founder of the Clifton Academy, co-founder of The Smart Brain Train Academy and Positive and Mindful Parenting .com . She is the co-founder of the Positive Peers Learning Software and the Smart Brain Train Academy. She is co-author and developer of the EI and IQ Academy 10 in 1 Learning Curriculum and Academy Software and Books for Emotionally Intelligent Children and she is the bestselling editor of the Emotions Volcano, The Angry Vacuum, And My First Bible For Kids. She also co-founded parents help parents.com, change child behavior.com.She focuses on Emotional and Social Intelligence for young school children and parents. She co-founded the Emotional Intelligence Youth Leadership Academy.
About the Authors
Jomo Jesus Thomas Suriel is a multi-published author, author of Sid The Super Happy Kid and Laura The Emotions Explorer, “The Emotions Volcano” and Amazon #1 best-selling new releases for Children’s Education Reference category, the “Angry Vacuum.” His next upcoming book in his emotional intelligence book series is “The Critical Critters.” He is a child prodigy, he is bilingual in Spanish and English. His children’s books often include English and Spanish references, plus useful tools for developing emotional intelligence and self-regulation. He is a natural communicator and has a profound understanding of emotional intelligence and self-regulation. Jomo Jesus is a pioneer in the category genre of children’s fiction books in the area of emotional intelligence and emotional regulation. He has a fantastic ability to take complex ideas and simplify them for young readers. He also studies Mandarin and Hebrew. His books include the series Sid the Super Happy Kid and Laura the Emotions Explorer, The Emotions Volcano, The Angry Vacuum, and the Super Happy Kid Defeats the Angries, and Super Happy Kid in Angry Land. He is a co-founder of the Smart Brain Train Academy which focuses on both emotional intelligence for children and academic learning as well as leadership.
Jomo Gamal Thomas wears many hats as an author, illustrator, artist, attorney, entrepreneur, and game developer. He has developed children’s education technology and emotional intelligence apps and is the co-founder of the Positive Peers Learning Software Partners, the Smart Brain Train Academy, ParentsHelpParents.com, and Positive and Mindful Parenting. Jomo has written My First Bible for Kids (Old Testament and New Testament). He was inspired by his son, Jomo Jesus Thomas Suriel, to develop mindful education apps, visual social-emotional intelligence learning apps, and early social-emotional intelligence learning apps for children on the autistic spectrum, ADHD, and ODD.
–Provided by the Smart Brain Train Academy
