Emotions management

In children, the relationship to emotions is progressive. The 6 primary emotions (joy, sadness, disgust, fear, anger and surprise) appear from the first year after birth. Secondary or mixed emotions appear between the 15th and 24th month, when the child becomes aware that he or she is a full person, and new emotions appear (e. g. gene, jealousy). During the third year, the child experiences new secondary emotions that require an understanding of rules, norms and objectives to be achieved (e.g. guilt, pride). This process of evolution of the relationship to emotions then continues until adolescence. It is possible that the child may perceive and interpret situations differently from one year to the next. Managing emotions can result in the development of what is called "emotional intelligence".

The development of emotional competence (or intelligence) requires the development of 3 components: knowledge of the different emotions, the ability to express emotions, and finally the ability to respond in an appropriate way to emotions. For the child to be able to better manage his or her emotions, he or she must develop this skill as a whole. For the ITEP public, all these phases can be problematic. Often, they do not react or hurt to the emotions they feel, and confuse the social codes associated with each of the emotions (smiling when you are happy, crying when you are sad...). They regularly find themselves in situations of suffering, in situations of violence for themselves or with others, or in situations of inappropriate behaviour.