Seattle Child Therapy – Thriving Child Blog

Emotional Intelligence

What???

Emotional Intelligence is basically the ability to tolerate and deal with your own emotions (frustration, anger, sadness, happiness), as well as the ability to handle the emotions of someone else (to be in a room with someone who is angry or frustrated, etc).

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on emotional intelligence lately and am revisiting the work of John Gottman, Ph.D., at the University of Washington, who has done a great deal of research on children and emotion coaching parents.

It’s important for children to develop emotional intelligence, otherwise (according to Gottman):

• Girls who don’t develop emotional intelligence may confuse anxiety/depression with hunger – which can lead to eating disorders

• Boys are at risk for impulse control and development of aggression

• Both boys and girls are at risk for attentional problems, cognitive issues, and developing poor relationships with other kids.

stay tuned for the next post on emotion coaching…