Ball State University

It was a great day today. We cleaned some things up and had pizza

This video was about allowing children to safely show emotions, and trying to understand them. Many children grow up being punished when they have strong emotions like anger or sadness, but this webinar talks about how it's important for kids to have a safe space to explore and discover their own emotions without fear of being ridiculed or judged. It tells us to talk to children about their emotions and listen to the concerns they have so that they're validated. The first 'aha' moment I got from this program is that emotions are based on our perceived reality, not necessarily on how things actually are. This resonated with me because it made me realize that when children throw a fit over something you deem to be no big deal, they might think this is the biggest problem they've ever had. So it kind of taught me that it isn't fair to punish a child for reacting to their perceived reality. My second 'aha' moment was that when something activates our emotions, we have an automatic response that comes before anything else, and that response is usually unhelpful. As adults, we have learned to think for a second and react in a (normally) different way than our first response wanted to. But children haven't acquired this skill yet. So their first reaction to things is often visceral or unhelpful, not necessarily through any fault of their own. I took this to mean that we should be extra patient when dealing with children's strong emotions, as they haven't really learned to filter their thoughts quite yet.

Great experience.