One of the most important stages in the emotional development of a child is represented by the school years. Similar to the adolescence, the beginning of school means a period of many changes for a child. This is when a young child will learn how to move from his play years to competency, entering a new environment, a demanding and formal one.

This stage of emotional development begins at the age of 6 and continues until the age of 12. School years, or the competency stage of emotional development, follow the play stage when children begin changing fantasy with active play and become more sociable. In the play stage of the emotional development, children also become proud of their own achievements, aspect which will continue to increase in the following years. Well, during the competency emotional development, children will continue the transition from fantasy to games, evolving to group activities or even sports. This is the period when kids begin to understand which are the bad and the good choices, experiencing the quit feeling. As during this stage of emotional development children also begin school, which can actually come as a shock for them, they will first enter into contact with formal regulations and will learn how to respect them, but also how to relate to the people in this new environment.

Starting with the age of 5, so during this stage of emotional development, children will also learn how to keep secrets and how to express their own emotions. However, keep in mind the fact that every child has his own social and emotional development, manifesting this behavior sooner or later. Starting with the age of 7 or 8, children will become more aware of their own feelings, desires or even thoughts, expressing even better emotions. This is part of the normal emotional development of your child, so you should not worry at all if your children start comparing themselves or their results with school colleagues or their friends. If they are not able to obtain similar results, children will begin to be concerned about their own abilities and capacities. As the academic preparedness of your child will continue, so will his emotional development until reaching the period of changes and struggles, naturally the adolescence.

The emotional development starts even before we are born. The relationship that the baby has with his mother begins from the intrauterine life. After a few months of pregnancy, the little baby can hear and recognise the voice of his mother. Although he is not born yet, has this extraordinary ability. These many seem small things, but they are the start of what will be a closer relationship between the mother and her child. After birth, the emotional development of the baby continues. To be a positive emotional development, the little one has to stay with his mother soon after delivery. It will help him calm and feel safe. It is one of the most complex things that take place and is also one of the most important steps for a healthy emotional development of the baby.

Nonetheless, this is just the start of a more complicated emotional development process. Our emotional development goes on all our lives, but the most important phases take place during childhood. The family has the most important role and influence. Neuro-linguistic programming is a relatively new field, claiming that our emotional development consist of behavioural patterns that we have learned throughout time, but we can choose our emotions. This is a new and very interesting approach on emotional development that was created in the ’70s, but since then a lot of new things have been discovered and more and more people are interested in this field.

NLP is not recognised by many specialists as there are no scientific evidence and misleading terms and concepts. Nevertheless, many people believe that this new approach is helping them with their emotional development. A lot of books about emotional development and this new field have been published, some of them being very successful, while others very criticised. It is sure that the emotional development is the “engine” of our lives and we have to pay a lot of attention to it and to how it develops. It is a very delicate problem and many emotional problems start during childhood, so parents should also be very responsible.

The emotional development of an individual is a process which starts in the early years and continues throughout his entire life. Numerous changes occur during the years and since infancy till becoming an adult, a child is under numerous influences in his daily life. The emotional development of a person is a long lasting process that takes years. And naturally, it continues through adulthood. The early adulthood is the period of time between 17 and 24 years old. This is a determinant and very important period in the life of all individuals, as this is the time when many changes occur. The student finishes school and starts developing a career. There are two main plans on which an individual will search fulfillment, including professional and personal life.

In early adulthood the individual will enter workforce and will be willing to strengthen romantic relationships. Defining goals in life is an important step in the emotional development of the young adult. Although each individual is unique and every single person makes different choices, numerous aspects linked to emotional development remain the same in all cases. One of the most common preoccupations of the young adult will be searching for romantic love and developing a satisfying relationship. This is an important way in which self-esteem can be improved. Emotional attachment to another person is a common aspect of emotional development in early adulthood. Unsatisfying relationships will lead to mistrust and a cold emotional connection. Naturally, more serious issues can raise from here, including infidelity problems and addictions to various substances including alcohol.

Leaving home is an important step into the emotional development of a young adult. To gain full independence and be able to leave home, young adults are willing to make all kind of sacrifices, including financial ones. A self-reliance feeling will be experienced now. Leaving home is a result of emotional development and growth. Career development is another important factor determining the general emotional development of a person. Success or failure will have a huge impact on the social and emotional development of a person. All individuals establish their own goals for different periods of time. Positive attributes such as independence, self-confidence and trust, will lead to a normal emotional development.

Emotional intelligence or emotional development is a term that describes the ability of a person to express his or her emotions appropriately, to interpret correctly the emotions of others and to understand the triggers and outcomes of certain emotions. Children with high levels of emotional development are also skilled in their ability to cope with their own emotions, in such a way that is creates positive social connections.

During the early stages of childhood and of emotional development, children start to develop self-conscious emotions. They start to evaluate themselves, instead of reacting to other adults’ evaluations. For example, an older baby or a younger toddler may be perfectly happy covering himself from head to toe in mud from the backyard, and will not experience any negative emotions, unless the adults will express their displeasure. In the early childhood, the emotional development can be seen in the feeling of guilt. For instance, children may still enjoy playing in the muddy yard, but as soon as they see their mother, the immediate response is shame or guilt.

As children grow, so does the emotional development. Children become increasingly more self-aware, more effective in communicating, and better at understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. In one word, their social skills increase. Thereby, the emotional development of children also tends to increase. In the stages of early childhood become more and more skilled at modifying and expressing their emotional development, in order to comply to different social situations. At this point in their emotional development, children are not aware of this aspect. The emotional development process in children happens at a subconscious level. For example, Joey feels angry, but he is aware that throwing a tantrum at school would be inappropriate.

Many adults do not know this, but children have a better understanding of things than their parents. The parents are the people who have most of the influence on children and they do not realise it. Many studies in these fields have shown that babies and toddlers posses a wide range of emotions. This is how babies and toddlers communicate with their parents, by means of emotional development. Infants are known to interpret the facial expressions and the voice tone of their parents.

New studies on the emotional development of babies have shown that infants can actually understand more than people usually imagine. The emotional development of an infant is considered to be the foundation of the social behavior of the adult, being at the same time an important influential factor on the way children are able to relate with other individuals, both in the early and middle-childhood and in adolescence.

Parents have an important influence on the emotional development of infants and the newest studies in this field have proved that babies possess a wide range of emotions. Through emotions, infants are actually able to communicate with their parents, even before learning to speak. Infants can accurately interpret the facial expressions and the voice tone of their parents. Babies are able to show both positive and negative emotions. The positive emotions of a baby will most likely be shown through smiles and laughing, while the negative ones will be indicated by crying and sadness, as well as anxious behavior. Parents usually manage to interpret well their infants’ emotions. For example, a baby will cry when feeling hunger or tiredness, but also when experiencing new, strange situations. For a normal emotional development, infants need a lot of care and attention, mostly during the first two years of life. A baby who has never been neglected will have a normal emotional development and will become an emotionally strong children and later on, a secure adult.

During the first months of life, the baby learns to recognize the touch of a person. Picking up the child is important for a normal emotional development, as the baby will be comforted this way. Starting with the fourth month of life, an infant will be able to recognize his family. If the baby becomes very curious about everything happening around him, parents should encourage him, as this is part of his normal emotional development. Grabbing things to put them into his mouth is also very normal for all babies. At eight months, a baby will start developing a sense of self, while his emotional development continues with the young child becoming more independent of his parents, as he develops self-consciousness. At eighteen months, the child will start remembering things. All strong emotional events in this stage of emotional development will most likely have long lasting effects on the behavior of a child, this is why parents should offer the baby constant care and attention, while understanding all steps of a normal emotional development.

Children going to school for the first time go through a series of stages and emotions. There are many factors that influence this event and that can make it either easy or difficult for the child. It is very important that you handle the emotional development of your children prior to enrolling them in school. As a new step in their young lives, the first year of school can bring a variety of new factors and elements into the lives of the little ones. In order to make sure that this does not become a traumatic event, you have to check their emotional development before and throughout the year.

There are many factors which will affect the emotional development during the first school year. To start off, you have to think about what you are going to tell them about school and the way other explain this new stage. If anyone will tell your child that school is hard and that there are mean children and so on, the child might have a negative emotional development around the idea. Leaving from the start with a negative impression over this stage can only create problems for the children throughout the first year and even until they finish school. Another factor that can influence the emotional development related to the first year of school is the medium. The children have to be stimulated from home to like school and appreciate the learning programs that they are enrolled in. However, there are factors of the emotional development that you cannot control. For example, if the first grade teacher is more severe and mean to the children, their development will surely be affected by this. On the same note, if the other children are cruel, they can create damage to the normal emotional development.

In the first year of school, the emotional development built up can affect the rest of your children’s lives in a good or in a bad way. This means that you have to pay a great deal of attention to the changes presented by the children throughout the year.

Most of the people have heard of emotional development, but do not really know what the term refers to. Emotional development stands for a child’s increasing awareness and control of their feelings and how they react to these feelings in a given situation. The emotional development should start at a very early age, so that their interaction with others will help develop them in both social and intellectual ways. Intellectual and emotional development go hand in hand to help the child develop socially, because it is the interaction amongst children and adults that creates a healthy emotional state.

There are some tips that might help you better deal with the emotional development of your child, so that he would have a healthy social and intellectual future. You should be purposeful in guiding the emotional life of your child. This means that you should focus intentionally on his emotional needs. These needs are just as important as his cognitive, physical and spiritual needs. Moreover, you should build a strong bond by spending quality time with your child. This is a positive reinforcement in the emotional development, meaning that the more parents interact with their child from an early stage, the stronger the bonds between them will be.

You should also try to connect to your child to an emotional level. Try to better understand what your child is feeling. Thus, the emotional development of your child will go to a whole new level. For example, if your child is happy, be happy for him, or if your child is sad, cry with him or encourage him to move on. It is a well known fact that children mimic everything that adults do. Therefore, by managing your own emotions in a positive way, your children will also learn to do so as well. Emotional development is also connected with teaching children how to handle negative emotions. It is not an easy task. Children need to be taught how to handle defeat, deal with a conflict or be angry in a healthy way. Children who are taught these skills as early as possible, are better able to handle negative feelings as adults. As you can see, the emotional development is very important for the development of a child and it reflects in how he will act as an adult.

Emotional development comes about with maturity. For a child, emotions are something very new. As they grow and mature, the process of emotional development becomes complete. The experiences they live make children better able to handle turmoil when it happens. Emotional development is also a way of learning to deal with emotions in a proper way, especially when their range of emotions is so wide: from happiness to anger. When we talk about emotional development in children, we are referring to the children’s growing ability to identify and understand their feelings, accurately read and understand the feelings of others, manage and shape the way they behave and feel, develop empathy for the others, and building and keeping good relationships with friends, family and others.

One of the most important aspects of emotional development is that in the first years, children are not able to manage for themselves the way they feel. Thus, the parents are the ones who keep these feelings under control. Especially with young children, there can be a feeling of frustration, because there is a large gap between the things they want to do and the things they are allowed to do. More often than not, this results in the child throwing a tantrum.

The emotional development of children is greatly influenced by the quality of the relationship that is developed between themselves and the parents. The way in which parents interact with their child has a lot to do with the child’s emotional development. Children learn to manage their emotions by watching how the other members of the family express and manage their emotions. In terms of emotional development, parents are the key role players in modeling how to respond to strong feelings.

Here are some tips on how to support the emotional development of your child. First of all, you should keep the emotional climate of your home calm, warm and predictable. Then, read stories to children and talk about the different feelings that characters in the book may be having. Talking with your child about emotions helps your child to better understand their feelings. Thus, your child will experience a correct and harmonious emotional development. Last but not least, try and encourage the child to talk about the situations when he feels angry, happy or excited.

Emotional development is a domain that has recently began to be very studied during the past years. Emotional development is a highly debated field a lot of studies have been made in this respective. The emotional development starts at a child’s very early age and is directly linked to the parents’ behaviour. Since children are too small and do not have free will, parents take all the choices for them and take control over their lives. According to Erik Erikson, there are eight stages of emotional development, that should help the child develop into a healthy human being. Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of emotional development stages, if not completed successfully, may unlock problems in the future.

The first step in emotional development centres around the infant’s basic needs that are met by the parents. The infant depends on the parents, especially the mother for food, sustenance and comfort. Should the parents fail to provide a secure environment and to meet the child’s basic needs a sense of mistrust will result. As the child gains control over the eliminative functions and motor abilities, they begin to explore the surroundings. The parents still provide a strong base of security from which the child can venture out to assert the will. If caregivers encourage self-sufficient behavior, then the emotional development is characterised by a sense of autonomy.

One of the very first steps in the emotional development is communication. It is the most important aspect. A good communication can lead to a good and healthy social and emotional development. Without passing through all these stages of emotional development, we would not be able to become the mature, healthy human beings that we are. Another important aspect is that parents should adapt their behaviour and actions according to the emotional development of their children. The emotional development will help the child in becoming more responsible and more independent in time. Parents must acknowledge their child’s independence, especially in the adolescent years, when it is more and more difficult to set boundaries for the child.

The adolescence is a crucial period in every individual’s life. Although individuals form and model their personalities throughout their entire lives, and all decision are meant to help them find their real path, the education and the influences they receive during early and middle childhood, but also in their teen years, are crucial. In fact, one of the most important aspects of the adolescence is that this is a period of changes. And emotional development is a very complex process in adolescence, as in this period most children ask themselves the question “who am I?” and they have to discover themselves the answer to it. Of course, teens will not ask the question, but their entire behavior will indicate their attempt to find the answer.

The emotional development of adolescents is probably the most important part of the whole process, as mixed emotions describe this period in every individual’s life. Strong emotions, mixed feeling and a continuous struggle are what describe best the emotional development of adolescents. As a parent, you should not worry at all if your child becomes moody and adopts a negative attitude. It is part of his or her normal emotional development, but you should know that in most cases, teens are going to cope with all changes in a positive manner. However, most teens want to gain independence from their parents, as the adolescence marks the end of childhood and prepares the beginning of young adulthood. So, during a normal emotional development of a teen, conflicts with parents actually are a normal behavior. 

Parental support is very important in the emotional development of an adolescent. However, rules and boundaries need to be set, for parents to make sure that their child is not going to fall on a negative path. Still, as a parent, you need to support the normal emotional development of your child, by letting him become more independent from you. He needs to discover who he is by his own and the only way you can support his emotional development is by making sure that the choices he makes, his own, are the right ones.