Building the vocabulary that allows expressing what we feel
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How can you express that you’re frustrated if you don’t know the word “frustration”? How can you ask for help when you feel overwhelmed if you can’t name that state? For children with Down syndrome, developing a rich emotional vocabulary is a crucial challenge that directly impacts their ability to regulate their emotions and communicate their needs.
This article explores the importance of emotional vocabulary, presents emotion cards as a development tool, and guides you in building a shared emotional language with your child.
The Importance of Emotional Vocabulary
Naming to Understand
There is a deep connection between language and thought. Words are not simple labels that we stick on pre-existing realities: they structure our way of perceiving and understanding the world, including our inner world.
When we have a word for an emotion, we can identify it more clearly, distinguish it from other similar emotions, recognize it when it returns. The word creates a mental category that organizes our emotional experience.
A child who only knows “happy” and “not happy” has a very limited emotional palette. Everything that isn’t clearly pleasant falls into the undifferentiated category of “not happy”. But this state could be sadness, anger, fear, frustration, boredom, fatigue… Emotions that call for different responses.
Enriching emotional vocabulary means offering the child a more nuanced palette to understand what they’re experiencing.
Naming to Communicate
Emotional vocabulary is also a communication tool. A child who can say “I’m frustrated” or show a “frustration” card clearly communicates their state, allowing the adult to respond appropriately.
Without words, the child is reduced to expressing emotions through behavior: screaming, crying, hitting, withdrawing. These behaviors communicate that there’s a problem, but not precisely which one. The adult must guess, and may be wrong.
Emotional vocabulary creates a more direct and precise communication channel. It reduces misunderstandings and the frustration of not being understood.
Naming to Regulate
Research in psychology shows that naming an emotion has a regulatory effect in itself. When we put words to what we feel, the intensity of the emotion decreases. This phenomenon, called “affect labeling”, activates the prefrontal cortex and reduces amygdala activity.
For children with Down syndrome, whose prefrontal cortex may be less efficient, this additional boost is valuable. Naming the emotion helps contain it.
Moreover, naming the emotion is often the first step toward action. “I’m angry, what can I do when I’m angry?” The word opens access to regulation strategies associated with that specific emotion.
The Development of Emotional Vocabulary
Basic Emotions
The development of emotional vocabulary begins with basic emotions, those that are universal and recognizable: joy, sadness, anger, fear.
These emotions are generally the first to be understood and expressed. They are associated with distinct facial expressions and clear behavioral manifestations, which facilitates their learning.
Start by ensuring that your child recognizes and can name these four basic emotions before enriching their palette with more nuanced emotions.
Nuanced Emotions
Once the basic emotions are acquired, you can gradually introduce more nuanced emotions.
Nuances of anger: frustration, annoyance, irritation, exasperation, rage. These distinctions allow differentiating intensity levels and different triggers.
Nuances of sadness: disappointment, melancholy, grief, loneliness. These words open the possibility of expressing more specific emotional experiences.
Nuances of fear: worry, anxiety, apprehension, dread. These distinctions are useful for communicating about negative anticipations and sources of distress.
Nuances of joy: contentment, excitement, pride, gratitude, enthusiasm. These words also enrich the palette of positive emotions.
Complex emotions: confusion, embarrassment, surprise, curiosity, boredom, jealousy. These emotions are more difficult to identify but are part of the human experience.
The Learning Pace
The development of emotional vocabulary is a progressive process that extends over years. Don’t try to teach everything at once.
Introduce new emotional words as natural opportunities arise. When the child experiences an emotion, name it: “You look frustrated because it’s not working the way you want.”
Return regularly to words already introduced to consolidate them. Repetition is essential for learning.
Adapt the pace to your child’s abilities. Some children quickly acquire a rich emotional vocabulary; others need much more time for each new word.
> DYNSEO supports you: Our training Developing Communication in Children with Down Syndrome guides you in developing your child’s emotional vocabulary, with strategies adapted to their language abilities.
Emotion Cards: A Powerful Visual Tool
What is an Emotion Card?
An emotion card is an illustrated card representing an emotion. It generally combines an image (face, character, symbol) expressing the emotion and the word that names it.
Emotion cards make emotions concrete and manipulable. The child can see them, touch them, choose them, show them. This physical dimension helps with understanding and use.
They offer visual support that compensates for language difficulties. A child who cannot say “I’m sad” can show the “sadness” card.
Different Types of Emotion Cards
Emotion cards can take different forms depending on preferences and needs.
Cards with photographic faces show real human facial expressions. They are realistic but can be more difficult to interpret because human expressions are subtle and variable.
Cards with drawn or stylized faces present simplified and exaggerated expressions, easier to decode. Emojis fall into this category.
Cards with characters or animals can be more engaging for some children. A familiar character (cartoon hero, mascot) expressing emotions can facilitate identification.
Cards with photos of the child themselves are highly personalized. Seeing their own face expressing different emotions creates a direct connection with personal experience.
Creating a Personalized Set of Emotion Cards
You can create your own set of emotion cards adapted to your child.
Choose the visual medium that speaks most to your child: photos, drawings, favorite characters.
Start with basic emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear) and gradually add more nuanced emotions.
Make sure each card is clear and readable. One image, one word, no visual overload.
Laminate the cards so they withstand daily use.
Involve the child in creation if they’re capable. Photographing their own expressions, choosing images, coloring drawings: this participation reinforces investment.
Using Emotion Cards Daily
Learning Emotions
Emotion cards are excellent tools for teaching emotion recognition.
The matching game: show a facial expression (yours, that of a character in a book, in a video) and ask the child to find the corresponding card.
The mime game: mime an emotion and ask the child to find the right card, or conversely, show a card and ask the child to mime the emotion.
Exploring triggers: for each card, explore what can cause this emotion. “What can make someone sad?” This discussion enriches emotional understanding.
Exploring manifestations: for each card, discuss how this emotion manifests in the body. “When we’re angry, what happens? The heart beats fast, fists clench…”
Expressing Emotions
Emotion cards can be used to help the child express what they feel.
The emotional check-in: regularly (upon waking, after school, before bed), ask the child to choose the card that represents how they feel. “How do you feel now? Show me with a card.”
Expression in situation: when you sense the child is experiencing an emotion, offer cards to help them name it. “I see that something’s bothering you. Show me with a card how you feel.”
Reviewing a situation: after an emotional event, use the cards to reconstruct the emotional journey. “At first you were how? And then, when the toy broke, you became how?”
Need Cards
In addition to emotion cards, need cards allow expressing what the child needs to feel better.
“I need a hug”, “I need to be alone”, “I need to move”, “I need to talk”, “I need help”…
When the child has identified their emotion with an emotion card, they can then express their need with a need card. This sequence opens the way to regulation.
The Emotion-Body Connection
Interoceptive Awareness
Emotions manifest in the body before reaching consciousness. The heart accelerates, muscles tense, breathing changes, the stomach knots. These bodily sensations are the first signals of emotion.
The ability to perceive these internal sensations is called interoception. Developing interoceptive awareness helps the child recognize their emotions earlier, which facilitates regulation.
Many children with Down syndrome have limited interoceptive awareness. They may not notice bodily sensations associated with emotions, or not make the connection between these sensations and emotional states.
The Body of Emotions
The “body of emotions” is a visual tool that represents a schematic human body on which the child can indicate where they feel different emotions.
“Where do you feel anger in your body?” The child can show or color the zones: fists, jaw, chest. “Where do you feel fear?” Stomach, throat, legs.
This exercise creates explicit associations between emotions and bodily sensations, strengthening interoceptive awareness.
Body Signals
Help the child identify their own bodily signals for each emotion.
“When you start to get angry, what happens? Do you clench your fists? Do you feel hot?”
These personal bodily signals become early indicators of emotion. The child learns to recognize them and intervene early.
Create “signal cards” that represent these bodily manifestations: “My heart is beating fast”, “My fists are clenched”, “I feel hot”, “I have a knot in my stomach”.
> DYNSEO supports you: Our training Helping Your Child with Down Syndrome Manage Their Emotions offers exercises to develop interoceptive awareness and make the connection between bodily sensations and emotions.
Emotions in Daily Life
Taking Advantage of Natural Situations
The best opportunities for emotional learning are situations in daily life. When the child is actually experiencing an emotion, name it.
“You’re so happy! You’re smiling and jumping around, that’s joy!”
“I see you’re frustrated because the puzzle piece won’t fit. It’s normal to be frustrated when something is difficult.”
“You look sad that Grandma is leaving. It’s sad to say goodbye to someone we love.”
These verbalizations in situation anchor emotional vocabulary in lived experience.
Others’ Emotions
Emotional learning isn’t limited to the child’s emotions. Observing and discussing others’ emotions also develops skills.
“Look at the little boy over there. How do you think he feels? He’s crying, what could make him sad?”
“In the book, the character looks angry. What happened to make them angry?”
Books, cartoons, situations observed in life are all opportunities to talk about emotions.
Your Own Emotions
Share your own emotions appropriately. You are a model for your child, including in emotional expression.
“I feel a bit stressed this morning because I have a lot to do.”
“I’m really happy that we’re spending this time together.”
“I felt frustrated when the car wouldn’t start, but I took a breath and I’m better now.”
These shares show that adults also experience emotions and manage them.
Key Takeaways
Emotional vocabulary is a fundamental tool for understanding, communicating and regulating emotions. Its development is particularly important for children with Down syndrome.
Emotion cards are visual tools that make emotions concrete and manipulable, facilitating learning and expression for children with language difficulties.
The connection between emotions and bodily sensations must be explicitly taught. Developing interoceptive awareness helps the child recognize their emotions earlier.
Daily life situations are the best opportunities to enrich emotional vocabulary and put it into practice.
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DYNSEO, Your Partner in Supporting Down Syndrome
At DYNSEO, we give you the tools to develop your child’s emotional skills.
Discover our training courses:
- Helping Your Child with Down Syndrome Manage Their Emotions: Emotional vocabulary, emotion cards, and developing emotional awareness.
- Developing Communication in Children with Down Syndrome: Enriching your child’s means of expression.
- Facilitating Daily Autonomy for Children with Down Syndrome: Routines and Visual Tools: Visual tools to structure emotional expression.
Together, let’s give words to your child’s emotions.
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This article was written as part of the DYNSEO blog, dedicated to healthy aging, memory, education and supporting people with cognitive disorders.
