Emotional intelligence (or EQ) skill-building programs help individuals to build their own personal emotional awareness. This includes regulating personal emotions as well as responding to peer emotions. Developing EQ can help children today and later in life by giving kids the skills they need to manage their feelings, solve problems, and function well, later translating into a successful adulthood.
It’s no secret that emotional intelligence is a crucial skill set in childhood. Children who have developed emotional intelligence are better at solving social problems, nurturing relationships, and expressing themselves. Setting your child up to carry these skills into a successful adulthood is a huge part of childrearing and early education.
Emotional intelligence is recognizing one’s own emotions and their consequences, as well as understanding how to communicate and cope with the emotions and behaviors of others. It goes beyond mere empathy and teaches people to establish accountability by observing and critically analyzing their own actions.
Emotional intelligence wasn’t always a known—or acknowledged—component of success until 1990 when psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey published their paper on what would later become a new way of defining intelligence. Not only did the paper introduce the term ‘emotional intelligence’ or EQ to the world, it also led to a new understanding of how our emotional make-up impacts our lives.
Many perceive academic success as being solely dependent on a child’s intellectual abilities. While a strong intellect and high IQ do benefit children in the classroom, their emotional intelligence or EQ is just as important to their academic achievement. Across the country schools are embracing a wider approach to student success in the classroom, and Social Emotional Learning programs are at the heart of the education revolution.
According to many experts, having an enhanced capacity to understand one’s own emotions as well as those of others, is a pivotal determinant of success, even arguably more so than a high IQ. This skill is referred to as emotional intelligence (EQ).
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EQuip Our Kids! is a national nonprofit campaign raising awareness about EQ life skills, especially among parents and businesses. Our goal is comprehensive EQ life skills instruction in every preK -12 classroom in the US by 2030.
