Help Little Kids Deal with Big Emotions Through Writing

The anguish! The crying! The inability to let go! Life can be so hard for little kids. All these strong emotions and still learning how to cope. Maybe you’ve tried breathing exercises, distraction, calming bottles, or a little bean bag in the corner of the room for your kid to chill out. Well, here’s another tool for your box. Writing!

When little kids are upset, they need someone to hear them and acknowledge their feelings. Here’s a special way for us to show up and validate our children. We write down what they’re saying and turn it into a little story.

A few weeks ago, my 4 year old was watching a show and she got scared. After several days of crying and talking about how it frightened her, she was clearly having trouble moving on. Writing came to our rescue. I sat down with her and asked her to tell me a story about the show and how it made her feel. While she told me, I wrote it into a mini book. After she finished talking, she added some pictures. Somehow, this process of turning her feelings into a story helped her move on. After that day, she still mentioned that the show scared her, but the crying, the sadness and the fear were all gone. It was more matter of fact.

Writing can be healing for all people. Grown-ups as well as kids can benefit from this exercise. The next time you child is feeling sad, scared, or mad try writing it down and drawing some little pictures to go with it. See if it helps and try it when you’re having big emotions too! I hope this tool will be useful to you all!