Visual aid helps identify feelings and ways to calm challenging behaviors



WI Office Children's Mental Health logo
Office of Children's Mental Health


November 19, 2024
Contact: Elizabeth Goodsitt/Jennifer Miller 608-266-1683

 

*OCMH Offers Early Childhood Feelings Thermometer for Parents *

*Visual aid helps identify feelings and ways to calm challenging behaviors*

The Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health (OCMH) recently offered child care providers the Early Childhood Feelings Thermometer [ [link removed] ], a tool to help young children manage big feelings and begin to name emotions. Now there is a version of this tool specifically for parents.

Help for Parents in Calming Big Feelings in Young Children [ [link removed] ] is a visual aid for parents to use with their pre-school age children. The tool helps families identify feelings as well as ways to calm challenging behaviors by pointing out activities that can shift feelings. The thermometer features five zones – starting at green, the calm zone, and lists feelings and behaviors associated with that zone – and goes up to red, the furious zone, with suggestions to help the child in the moment.

“We know that children are struggling with their emotions and acting out. I have heard from K-2 educators, child care providers, and parents across the state who say our young children struggle to manage everyday emotions, and it’s impacting their learning and development,” said OCMH Director Linda Hall. “Children communicate how they feel with their behaviors. Our hope is that parents, as well as caregivers and early childhood educators, begin to link behaviors with their underlying emotions. In doing so, we can move kids into healthy zones conducive to learning and cooperation."

One child care provider shared: “A majority of our parents do not know what to do when their child acts these ways at home, and they struggle with how to help them. So, at home they get tablets, TV, whatever they want to calm them down, instead of their parent coaching them on how to calm down.”

The Early Childhood Feelings Thermometer was inspired by OCMH’s original Feelings Thermometer, a popular tool [ [link removed] ] launched in 2020. The tool, available in 11 languages, helped many Wisconsin families weather the COVID pandemic and beyond by building emotional literacy.

"We live in stressful times," said Director Hall. "As we head into the holiday season, with the extra stressors many families feel, it is important to have easy-to-use tools that teach families how to identify emotions and manage feelings.”

Links to documents on the OCMH website available for viewing and printing :


* Help for Parents in Calming Big Feelings in Young Children [ [link removed] ]
* Early Childhood Feelings Thermometer – available in English [ [link removed] ], Spanish [ [link removed] ], and Hmong [ [link removed] ]
* Additional information and tools [ [link removed] ] 


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