Understanding Emotions Ni, an assistant professor-level attending physician in the Department of Child Psychology, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, a legal person of Chang Gung Memorial Medical Consortium, said that emotions are subjective feelings derived from environmental changes, and their physiological reactions affect their own and others' behaviors. If cognitive development is still in the primary stage and there are not many things to know, then the types of emotions developed will be few and simple.
Wu is the head of All for Kids, a professional website for children's functional therapy. He points out that people's emotions develop slowly from birth. For babies, the main meaning of emotions is to communicate with the outside world and express their needs, which can be roughly divided into three levels. The first level is to meet personal needs, including physiological needs, safety needs, and being loved. So they will express all kinds of emotions, let the outside world pay attention to their own needs, and then help themselves; The second level is to change your state, that is, from no emotion to good and bad emotions. When these emotions are projected into the environment, the environment will change and return to itself. For example, parents take their children to the store, and the children clamor to buy their favorite toys. Parents don't want to, and the children sit on the ground and cry, which makes parents angry and curse him. This is the second level of emotional meaning; The third layer is to control yourself and observe other people's emotions, project good emotions into the environment, and let the environment return to your advantage. For example, when a child sees that Mommy is injured, he will take the initiative to care about it and ask Mommy if the wound hurts, whether it needs rubbing medicine, and so on. Let mommy be better for her children because of their comfort.
Extended reading: angry, happy and jealous, the baby's emotional intelligence develops like this! Solve the child's emotional out of control! Four steps to get rid of crying
Basically, when people encounter various events, the brain will judge what reaction to present through the area in charge of emotions. However, for infants and young children, due to the lack of knowledge of the external environment and the lack of ability to integrate experience, most of them rely on the amygdala to reflect various original reactions when facing people, things and things outside. If children want to develop the ability of emotional regulation, they must constantly give them all kinds of * * *. When they have enough * * *, they can establish an experience database in their brains, cultivate better problem-solving ability and environmental adaptability, and then control their emotions.
Dr. Ni Zhangxin believes that in order to make children's emotions develop steadily, they must be cultivated from an early age. If it is not cultivated from an early age, in the short term, it will not only affect personal behavior, but also affect health. For example, children who are often angry have poor gastrointestinal absorption and loss of appetite, which even affects growth and development in severe cases; Children who often feel anxious will have problems such as excessive heart rate and heart discomfort. When they are separated from their parents, they are more likely to cry endlessly and can't calm down as soon as possible. In the long run, it will affect health and social skills. In health, irritable bowel or headache, dizziness, chest tightness, and even mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, are prone to occur. As for social interaction, children may easily be too nervous, resulting in problems such as being unable to communicate effectively with others or make friends.
Wu's functional therapist added that the number of brain cells in normal people is actually similar and will not continue to increase after birth, because brain cells no longer have the ability to divide after leaving the mother. Although brain cells no longer increase, they will grow synapses and connect with other brain cells. With more environment, the synapses of brain cells will become more and more complex, thus increasing the ability of cognitive integration and producing better emotional regulation. On the other hand, if people's environment is insufficient, they can only rely on the amygdala to judge their own attributes and send out primitive reactions, and the connection between brain cells will be insufficient, so they can't coordinate with each other and coordinate more appropriate emotional reactions. Find some gifted students on campus (such as gifted students in mathematics and science, gifted students in China literature, etc.). ) The emotional control ability is poor, because the brain cells are only connected with the nearby brain cells at birth, but not closely connected with the distant brain cells, and they only pay attention to the cultivation of theory and knowledge when they study the day after tomorrow, which leads to their poor emotional control ability.
The elements of controlling emotions include amygdala, emotional control ability and environmental interaction ability. Among them, the amygdala is in charge of the original reaction, which directly reflects various emotions without relying on the rational judgment of the brain when encountering events; Emotion control ability means that after people have accumulated enough life experience, they build an experience database in their minds, and when they encounter an event, they can extract their previous experiences from the database, thus reflecting their true emotions; The ability of environmental interaction is the emotion that people show after understanding the general situation of the environment and adapting to it.
The amygdala is very small and located near the brain stem. It can regulate visceral activities and produce emotions. When there is an emergency, it will trigger the most primitive emotional response and protect yourself. For example, when you are stabbed by a sharp weapon, you will feel scared and your body will automatically jump away. When scolded by parents, I feel scared or sad and want to hide; When I taste delicious food, I feel happy and even clap my hands.
Emotional control ability
Emotional control ability refers to the emotion expressed by the brain through high-order cortical integration after receiving information, and the degree of this ability can be judged by emotional intelligence quotient (EQ). This part of the emotion appears after the original reaction mentioned above, and it is the emotion that the brain shows when it accepts what it encounters, checks its past life experience and judges its cognitive ability. When the emotional control ability is mature, the primitive emotions triggered by the amygdala can be suppressed, and the true emotional response in the heart can be expressed. For example, if mommy is walking on the road and suddenly someone pats her back very hard, usually mommy will be startled or even angry, but when she turns around and finds that she is an old friend whom she has not seen for a long time, mommy's mood will instantly change from panic and anger to surprise, and she may say, "Wow! Long time no see! " And other happy words. From this example, the original reaction of mommy's initial fright and anger comes from the amygdala, and then the surprise reaction is the reaction of the brain after integration through the higher cortex.
The ability of environmental interaction means that when a child encounters an event, he can understand the cause of the whole event, observe the surrounding environment, then control his own emotions, and then project good emotions into the environment to form a good interaction with him.
Taking the study of "visual cliff" as an example, an 8-month-old baby was tested. In the study, prepare a big glass first, and put a cliff-like photo under the glass. The purpose is to test whether children think they will fall when they climb the cliff. It was found that the baby continued to climb the cliff because his visual perception was not fully developed and his life experience was insufficient. Two months later, test again. Because of more study, the child knew that if he climbed the cliff, he would fall, so he stopped before climbing the cliff. Even though his parents always encouraged him to climb forward, he still felt scared and began to cry loudly and ask for help. 1 ~ 2 months later, children's language ability gradually develops, they can pronounce "father" and "mother", and they are more sensitive to their parents' reactions. When he climbed the cliff, he cried because of fear, but because of the encouragement of his parents, he thought he should be able to climb it safely and continue to climb forward, thus successfully crossing the obstacle. From the last 1 1 ~ 12 months, the baby found that the child's emotions experienced twists and turns, from crying because of fear to the safety information given by the external environment, telling him that what he saw in front of him was not true, and he could safely climb forward, so that the child's emotions could be calmed down, become brave, and then climb forward. Therefore, when children's cognitive ability is good, they can improve their ability to adapt to the environment and solve setbacks, and express positive emotions derived from overcoming the environment.
Extended reading: Exercise 7, parents can cope easily, what should children do if they are out of control?
The stage of emotional development
After the baby is born, in order to meet the physiological needs, it will only show various basic emotions such as joy, anger, sadness and joy. But with the growth of age, because we have to learn to live and adapt to the environment, we gradually produce various emotions. After developing various emotions, I will also start to think about how to respond to the environment in order to produce things that are beneficial to me, and then control my emotions, project more positive emotions into the environment and let the environment give me positive feedback.
The emotional development of infants is from simple to complex. Newborn babies only have simple expressions such as distress and joy. With the growth of age, after integrating more life experiences, their brains gradually differentiate into more complex emotions, such as anger, pride and modesty. .
0 ~ 1 month Most crying children will only feel distressed. The common behavior is crying, because they have to meet basic physiological needs, such as eating, sleeping and changing diapers.
1 ~ 2 months of joy and satisfaction At this time, most children will develop emotions of joy, happiness and satisfaction. The common behavior is smiling, because they want to be concerned by others and have more interaction with the environment. Therefore, if parents play with their babies or tease their children with toys at this time, the children will show social smiles.
Children who are angry for 2 ~ 4 months will have angry emotions. The common behavior is crying, and when you cry, you will cry until your emotions disappear. The reason is that their physical and mental experiences are uncomfortable. For example, their parents have been teasing him, others have been staring at him, and their children are still young, so they can't digest what they have just experienced quickly, so they will cry endlessly. If parents encounter this situation, they can gently appease and help their children calm down quickly. On the contrary, if parents adopt an angry or impatient attitude, they will induce more crying emotions and make the unstable situation more serious.
4 ~ 6 months of emotion+action to express children's emotional development is mainly to deepen the emotions developed in 0 ~ 4 months, including joy, distress, anger and so on. And they will begin to express their likes or dislikes for specific situations or sounds, such as laughing at favorite toys, not overdoing seeing foods they don't like, and so on. In addition, children will also begin to distinguish between the main caregivers and others, and become more dependent on the main caregivers.
6 ~ 12 months "When frightened and angry children look at people, things and things outside six months ago, they are in a vague state because their eyeballs are not fully developed, but they can see clearly at close range after six months, including their parents' expressions and favorite toys. Even the appearance of each relative, plus more life experience, they can distinguish between obvious danger and safe environment. Therefore, cultivate feelings of fear, shyness and anger. Common behaviors include crying, turning your head, breaking free and so on. These emotions are different from the reactions projected by basic survival, but self-protection emotions that keep you away from danger and close to a safe environment.
1 ~ 2 years old "produces separation anxiety. From the age of 1 year, children will not only show various emotions because of their own needs, but also begin to notice and be influenced by others' emotions. Sometimes they can even empathize and derive various emotions. For example, when others are crying, they will be emotional contagion and start to cry; When others laugh, they will laugh with them. Because children can't tell the difference between themselves and others, they are prone to sentimental emotions. For example, when a group of children are playing together, a child is scolded by his mother for throwing toys. At this time, all the children will show a sad look, because they can't tell whether they are scolded by others or themselves.
In addition, children will also have stranger anxiety and separation anxiety at this stage. Stranger anxiety refers to that children aged 1 ~ 2 can clearly distinguish the difference between their main caregivers and others, and easily think that they may encounter danger or insecurity in the arms of strangers. Therefore, if they give their children to unfamiliar people, they are prone to fear and show resistance and crying behavior. Separation anxiety is because children have established a good attachment relationship with their parents. If parents want to be separated from their children, children will easily cry and be nervous because they can't accept the fact that their parents are leaving. However, as children have a sense of security for their parents and become more and more confident in mastering the environment and self-state, the situation will gradually improve.
Jealousy and Sin 2-year-old children will be proud of their abilities, because they have more life experience and better cognitive ability, and have reached the language explosion period. In addition, because children have gradually developed self-concept and interpersonal boundaries, they will feel jealous and guilty. Common behaviors include acting like an adult, often saying "no", liking to rob other people's property, fighting with others, and feeling guilty when being accused.
Dr Zhang Xin added that children over 2 years old will begin to understand other people's emotions and learn to control them. For example, after crying, children notice that their parents are angry and try to be patient and not cry. However, some children may deliberately make naughty actions to annoy their parents.
4 ~ 6 years old children with empathy, worry, modesty and self-confidence will gradually develop mature emotions such as empathy, worry, modesty and self-confidence from about 4 years old. Common behaviors include empathy for things, such as: when you see others crying, you feel sad and will come forward to comfort; Mommy shows anxiety and worry when she hasn't come back from going out. When others praise themselves for their cleverness, they show modesty, etc.
Wu's functional therapist stressed that since the age of 4, children will gradually develop more effective behavior patterns and control their emotions because they have the basic ability to observe the environment and recognize after reflection. The so-called post-reflection cognition means that children can think and predict what will happen according to what others say. For example, when the child hears "If you don't behave yourself, Mommy will be angry later!" ! ",you will know that you must be good, or you will be scolded by mommy.
After the age of 6, two emotions coexist. When the child is about 6 years old, various basic emotions have developed, and there will be two kinds of emotional situations. For example, toys are packed and praised by parents, and they will be happy and proud; /kloc-after 0/0 years old, there will be two completely opposite emotions. For example, I found that I did well in math test but my Mandarin was poor, so I felt happy and sad.
In addition, because children are more mature in observing the environment, they can show good emotions to change the environment and make the atmosphere more positive, and they can also benefit from it. For example, when a child finds that mommy is hurt and feels pain, she will come forward to comfort and please. At this time, mommy will not only become more active, but also love her children more.
Further reading: 2 ~ 6 months is a decisive and important period! Brain development of infants and young children
Indicators for detecting emotional development The emotional development of infants is diverse, complex and changeable. We can't judge whether the development is slow or ahead of schedule from a very small age range, but only from a wide range of age ranges, activities and patterns to judge whether the progress is normal. First of all, from the age range, infants aged 0 ~ 1 year should develop various basic emotions, such as joy, anger, sadness and joy, due to their basic personal needs; 1 ~ 2 years old children should develop separation anxiety and strangeness anxiety, that is, they should have the ability to distinguish the main caregivers from others; Children aged 2 ~ 3 will pay attention to other people's emotions and be able to control their own emotions without getting too out of control; Children aged 3 ~ 6 begin to enter social life and like to go to kindergarten. So they should learn to get along with others and cultivate the ability to observe others' emotions and control themselves.
Secondly, in the activity mode, parents can observe their children's emotional state according to their usual activity, concentration, endurance and pace of life (see table 1 for details). With regard to behavior patterns, according to the second national survey of children conducted by the Ministry of Education, children are divided into five types (see Table 2 for details). It is suggested that if parents find that the child's emotional development is not in progress or has deviant behavior, it means that the child may have emotional disorders and needs to further clarify the reasons and improve them.
Table 1: Characteristics of Children's Activity Mode 5
trait
Activity mode
activity
Activity is the ratio of active time to quiet time. Some children are very active. They can keep groping, dancing, climbing high or low, grabbing things everywhere and so on. , meaning high activity; On the contrary, some children only like to stay in a fixed place to play with toys, and don't like to grope around, which shows that their activity is low.
Pay attention to endurance
Concentration endurance is the time for children to concentrate on activities. Children aged 65,438+0 ~ 2 can concentrate for 2 ~ 3 minutes, children aged 3 ~ 4 can concentrate for 5 ~ 8 minutes, and children aged 5 ~ 6 can concentrate for more than 65,438+00 minutes.
Rhythm of life
The law of daily life has a considerable relationship with the normal physiological clock. If children's daily life is abnormal, they often can't sleep well or eat well, and they are prone to anxiety.
adaptability
Adaptability is a child's ability to adapt and accept new things from outside. Some children are just a little nervous when they first enter the new environment, but then they can adapt to the environment and coordinate with it; Some children are very resistant to new things. When they see strangers or things, or hear some voices, they even have a strong negative reaction.
Emotional expression
Emotional expression refers to the mood of children during activities. Some children are naturally lively, like to laugh, cheerful and in a good mood; Some children are melancholy, crying, often unhappy and negative.
Source: National Development Committee.
Table 2: Children's Behavior Patterns 5
type
behavioral pattern
interpersonal relationship
Unable to establish and maintain good interpersonal relationship with classmates or teachers, often fighting with classmates, quarreling, attacking teachers, losing his temper, not interacting with classmates, accusing or criticizing classmates at will, etc.
code of conduct
Illegal or anti-social behavior, such as truancy, truancy, lying, stealing, irritability, sabotage, unruly or hurting others.
melancholy
Unhappy or depressed emotions often appear, such as: not interested in activities, hurting yourself, pulling a long face, being pessimistic, being indifferent to your own affairs, feeling depressed or retreating.
anxious
Excessive anxiety leads to obvious discomfort symptoms, fear reaction or compulsive behavior, such as nervousness, fidgeting, anxiety-induced physiological reaction (vomiting, dizziness), fidgeting, repetitive actions, emotional excitement, exaggerated actions, and excessive fear reaction.
Eccentric habits
I often suck my thumb, bite my nails, indulge in pornographic books, magazines and movies, and indulge in peculiar smell or partial eclipse.