At Commotion, we understand the profound impact that early emotional development has on a child’s overall well-being and future success. The ability to explore, understand, and communicate emotions is not just a skill but a foundation for mental health, robust social interactions, and academic achievement. This is why we have thoughtfully designed, developed, and sourced products that encourage children to delve into their emotions, enhance their communication skills, and discover the vocabulary they need to express themselves— all through the power of play.
The importance of emotional exploration in early years
Children’s early years are critical for developing the ability to recognise and regulate emotions. During the early years, play serves as a natural and effective way for children to explore their feelings in a safe and supportive environment. Through play, children can process their experiences, understand their emotions, and learn to express these emotions in a healthy manner. This emotional exploration lays the groundwork for developing resilience, empathy, and strong interpersonal relationships later in life.
Our top products for facilitating emotional learning through play:
My Emotions Wooden Tiles
tickit My Emotions Wooden Tiles - these tactile wooden tiles are a fantastic educational tool for helping children identify, understand, and express their emotions. Each tile features real photographic images of children displaying various emotions, providing visual cues that help children recognise and normalise their own feelings. These tiles serve as excellent discussion prompts, enabling children to explore the triggers of different emotions and discuss healthy coping mechanisms. Furthermore, the tactile nature of the tiles allows children to express their emotions non-verbally, offering an accessible way for them to communicate their feelings, especially when they might not yet have the words to do so.
Practical applications in Play:
- Daily check-ins: Many educators and parents use the Emotion Tiles for daily emotional check-ins, where children select a tile that represents how they feel at that moment. This simple activity helps children become more aware of their emotions and encourages them to express their feelings openly.
- Storytelling: The tiles are also incorporated into storytelling activities, allowing children to explore characters' emotions and reactions. This not only enhances their understanding of narrative structures but also deepens their empathy and ability to relate to others.
- Problem-solving: In more structured settings, the Emotion Tiles are used to discuss and solve emotional problems. Children are encouraged to think through how they might handle various emotional situations, fostering their problem-solving skills and emotional intelligence.
Mirrors & the tickit Sensory Reflective range
Our Mirrors and Sensory Reflective products are designed to help children explore their own emotions by observing their expressions and reactions in a reflective surface. By seeing their emotions reflected back at them, children gain a better understanding of how emotions manifest physically. This self-awareness is a crucial step in learning to regulate emotions and communicate them effectively. These mirrors can also be used in group settings to facilitate discussions about feelings, helping children to develop empathy as they observe and respond to the emotions of others.
Practical application in play:
- Recognising emotions: Children can practise identifying different facial expressions by mimicking feelings such as happiness, sadness, anger, or surprise while looking in the mirror. Ask them "Can you show me your happy face?" or "What does a sad face look like?" This helps them understand how emotions are visually expressed.
- Role play: Encourage children to act out different scenarios in front of the mirror – for example, pretending to receive good news or comforting a friend. They can observe their expressions change in real-time, learning how their faces correspond to their emotions.
- Exploring empathy: In group settings, children can pass the reflective buttons or balls to one another, watching how the reflections change depending on who is holding them. This activity can open discussions about perspectives and how others might feel in certain situations. For instance, when a child looks at another’s reflection in the sensory button, ask, "How do you think they feel?" This simple question encourages children to think about the emotions of others.
- Sensory relaxation and emotional regulation: The reflective surface of these has been shown to have a calming effect, encouraging mindfulness. Children can focus on watching their reflection or gently rolling the sensory balls, which can help them relax and manage their emotions. This is particularly useful for children who need help with emotional regulation during stressful or overwhelming moments.
Understanding Feeling Pack & Expression Mirror Faces
The Understanding Feeling Pack and Expression Mirror Faces are tools specifically designed to support emotional literacy. These products encourage children to explore a range of emotions, from happiness and excitement to sadness and anger. By interacting with these tools, children learn to identify and label their feelings, which is the first step towards effective emotional regulation. The mirrors, in particular, allow children to experiment with different facial expressions, helping them to better understand and communicate their emotions in social interactions.
Practical application in play:
The Understanding Feelings Pack features cards showing various emotions, helping children learn to identify and express feelings. Early years practitioners have used these tools in the following activities:
- Emotion matching: Children match emotion cards with words or describe the emotion shown, building their emotional vocabulary.
- Understanding emotions in others: One game we have seen repeated with this resource is to understand and see emotions in others. For this game a child mimics an emotion from the card while others guess, developing empathy and emotional understanding.
- Storytelling: Children create stories using the cards to explore emotional changes in different situations, often reflecting on their own experiences.
Expression Mirror Faces can help children see and understand their own emotional expressions. With this resource we have seen the following active play scenarios take place:
- Facial Expression Practice: Children mimic emotions (e.g., happy, sad) in the mirror to learn how feelings appear on their faces.
- Emotion Challenge: Pair mirrors with emotion cards to encourage children to replicate and understand expressions.
SiliShapes® Linking People
The SiliShapes® Linking People set is a versatile resource that can be used to explore emotions and relationships. These colourful, flexible figures can be linked together to represent different relationships and social connections. This hands-on activity helps children understand the complexities of human relationships and the emotions that accompany them. By linking the figures in different ways, children can explore scenarios such as friendship, conflict, and reconciliation, all while developing their social and emotional skills.
Practical applications in play:
- Colour matching: Assign each coloured figure an emotion, such as red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness, and green for calmness. Lay out emotion cards or pictures showing various facial expressions, and have children match the corresponding SiliShape figure with the correct emotion. This helps children associate colours with feelings and improves their emotional vocabulary.
- Acting out emotional situations: Set up scenarios where the SiliShapes represent different characters going through various emotional experiences. For instance, one SiliShape might feel sad because they dropped their ice cream, and another might come over to comfort them. Ask the children, "How do you think this person feels? What could their friend do to help?" This type of role-playing encourages empathy and helps children understand how emotions affect social interactions.
By offering products focused on emotional wellbeing and understanding, providers are are able to deliver invaluable tools for supporting the development of children. The design and distribution of toys that nurture emotional learning, allows suppliers to not only tap into a growing demand for these resources but also contribute to the emotional wellbeing of children, setting the foundation for a more empathetic, emotionally intelligent future.
