Want your child to succeed? They need EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
We should be your first stop when choosing programing for your child, and here’s why…
At The Little Gym, we see this all the time. The child that has never left his/her parents’ side, or is uncomfortable being independent or making a decision. A child that is nervous around other kids, or has a hard time handling their emotions and struggles to calm themselves down. These are the kids we want to help the most. Once their emotions are in check, their minds are open to learning, and their confidence SOARS, both in the gym and later in life.
What is “EI”?
According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence is “regulating one’s own feelings, developing a rich emotional life, understanding others’ emotions, having empathy and compassion for others and working well with others.” It is the balance between the head and the heart.
Why does “EI” matter?
Emotional intelligence is more than just primitive brain function … it represents the core of who we are. This sense of self is a filter for how we see the world, what we think about the world, and how we behave.
One can be academically intelligent and emotionally lacking. And the reverse is true as well. Many of our most successful creative geniuses, businesspeople, and athletes underachieved in schools that emphasized language tasks and math, and excluded artistic capacities and people skills.
When parents are emotionally adept, compared to those who handle feelings poorly, their children are better at handling their own emotions, are more effective at soothing themselves when upset, and get upset less often. The children are also more relaxed biologically, with lower levels of stress hormones and other physiological indicators of emotional arousal. Their parents and teachers alike rate these children as having fewer behavioural problems, such as rudeness or aggressiveness. These children can also pay more attention, and so are more effective learners.
Another reason EI is an important subject is because of the impact low emotional intelligence can have on children in academics. Almost all students who do poorly in school lack one or more of the elements of EI. The most common cause of disability among teenagers is mental illness. One out of three teenagers report symptoms of depression.
One of our goals at The Little Gym is to help parents understand their child’s developmental stages and help parents understand critical developmental milestones, like Emotional Intelligence. We start young, at 4 months, and there is a reason for it (see chart). If you are interested in reading the full article, write us at tlglondoncan@thelittlegym.com. There are still spaces in classes for January. If you have a child starting school in September, we should be your first stop in School Readiness! Visit tlglondoncan.com to view our full schedule.
Story submitted by The Little Gym of London
