Introduction & Theoretical Background
Developing emotional literacy is an important skill for a child’s social and emotional development. Steiner (1984) proposes that “To be emotionally literate we need to know both what is is that we are feeling and what the causes for our feelings are. It is not sufficient to know that we are angry, guilty, happy or in love. We must also know the origin of our anger, what causes our guilt, why we are in love, and how angry, guilty or in love we are.” Similarly, Figueroa-Sánchez (2008) defines literacy as “the ability to create meaning and the ability to apply that understanding our own lives” and argues that children’s emotional readiness can be nurtured by engaging them in literacy-focused activities including narrative storytelling and games that express their feelings and emotions.
Enhancing a child’s vocabulary for their feelings is one way of helping them to understand and learn to manage their