September 15, 2025 • 18 mins
Children and adults use more than just the words on your emotions chart to describe how they are feeling. In this episode of "How Preschool Teachers Do It," Cindy and Alison discuss the other words that people use and the validity of them all. Listen and then send your emotions words to us through our website - HowPreschoolTeachersDoIt.com!
- Check out our website: https://www.howpreschoolteachersdoit.com/
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- Learn more about Cindy's work, including professional development, family education, and consulting opportunities: https://hihello.com/hi/cindyterebush-RXMBKA
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are not random influence. No, we are not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Whether you are new or have been our podcast peep
since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Happy Monday, everybody, Hi, beate,
welcome back to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And Allison is gonna let us know now, especially from
a couple places we've not We think we haven't shouted out.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I don't believe we've shouted these two out either, And
that's very exciting because the last.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Couple episodes they've all been like new places.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
So Hi to the people of the Netherlands, how are you,
and also to the fine people of Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
My son was in the Netherlands not all too long ago,
that's right. Yeah, Yeah, he loved it. Yeah, he loved
the whole thing. Also, he said one of his favorite
cities now is Brussels. But he loved like he traveled
the Netherlands for a little bit and he just he said,
it's amazing, so maybe maybe we'll get there someday. In
the meantime, please tell the people who you know in
(01:13):
Wyoming and the Netherlands and everywhere else.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
To please come and listen to the podcast. We really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We love seeing that there are people in new places
who have found us. So go tell the other people
in your new place that we are here, and we
are very happy to have these discussions every Monday morning
about young children, families, things that impact them, things that
impact early educators and early education.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, so please do.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Come and invite them to be one of our preschool
peeps night and today we're going to talk about since
we're talking about how we feel about having new people joining.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Us, I love these so much. I love this.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So since we're talking about that, we're gonna be talking
about those feelings and emotion words. I know you probably
have charts in classrooms that show different emotions, and I
know you probably have books that talk about things like
what to do when you're mad and what to do
when you're sad, And I know you may have images
up in the classroom and they all usually have the
(02:17):
same sorts of words like this is mad, this is sad,
this is surprised, this is excited, this is happy, this
is frustrated.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right, this is.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Frustrated, this is right. So we tend to use these words,
and there is this big giant emotion wheel with all
of the emotion words. We do want to teach children
emotion words. But there is something that we need to
recognize in our communications and in children's communications, and it's
that not every word that communicates an emotion is on
your emotions chart. Not every word that communicates an emotion
(02:51):
is on the big giant emotion's wheel. If there are
words that human beings used to communicate emotions that have
more to do with how it feels in your body, yes,
than these words that when you think about words, can
we get philosophical for a second.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Okay, okay, stick with me. We're gonna go a little
meta or something.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
When you think about words, they're really just these sounds
that we assigned a definition to, right, made.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Up, construct right, like it's kind of made up, right,
we made this stuff up at one point.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We're deeply in the weeds now.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
But but there are other words, especially children will use
to describe how they're feeling. Because young children, when you
when when they have these big and they have these
big feelings because of their brain development, and when they
have these feelings and when we do, there's a reaction
in your body. Now, when you say to children, how
does that feel, they are more likely to be able
(03:48):
to tell you how it feels in their body. Most
adults have to stop and think about it. Like I've
had people say.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
To me, where are you feeling that in your body?
And I have to pause.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Where For children, it's like right there on the surface,
So very often they'll describe how they feel with these
sorts of words. I was recently attending a train. The
trainer and the person who was facilitating it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Was talking about how her child.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Describes feeling anxious as feeling buzzy. I feel buzzy. Yeah, right,
it's a sensation. It's a sensation to feel buzzy. So
like her child say, I feel buzzy, and you kind
of can almost can't you kind of picture like bees
just buzzing around inside this child.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well, because anxiety is sometimes described as like butterflies in
your stomach kind of.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Feeling right, because you have that fluttery like you're like
little jittery.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Maybe you're just like or maybe you're just like overly
excited and it's all in there and it's just buzzing out.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So it makes sense, I mean to me, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My son, when he was young, and still to this
day sometimes because he knows I know what he means, Okay,
he didn't need to tell me the emotion. He would
come in and he would say to me, mommy, and
he was young and he would say, Mommy, I have
the gut feeling. And I knew that that was anxiety
or guilt. For my son, he didn't he didn't come
(05:14):
in and say as a child, he didn't come in
and say I'm feeling anxious or I'm feeling guilty, or
I'm feeling both anxious and guilty, which.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Is usually what it was. He used to come in
and say, I.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Have the gut feeling, and I understood what sort of
emotion he was trying to express. Right, Right, I've heard
people say I feel heavy when they're sad and depressed
and depressed. You're you're right, I feel heavy.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I feel you're weayed down with something that's a heavy feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I recently, I'm old.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
So I recently went to an appointment and somebody asked
me how I was doing, and I said, my head
feels over crowded.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I use that because, yeah, my head did, see.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So that's like, is it overwhelmed?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I think it's overwhelmed or like where you have so
many thoughts and the thoughts are going all over the
place and you can't really like.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Focus on any one of those thoughts. But I also
think it.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Was like so many emotions mixed in. I didn't have
just one emotion, so there wasn't a word for the
emotion I was feeling. So I kinda had to make
a word, and that's the word that came to my
mind when I described it. And yeah, the person I
was talking to figured it out through talking about it.
But like, if I'm old and I'm still describing feelings
(06:32):
this way and emotions this way, older, older, Okay, then like,
and I think, honestly, it's because there was no definition
for what I was feeling.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
There was no word, right, So sometimes these emotion words
on the charts do not fully describe right what we're
like that heavy I have felt heavy heavy, Yeah, you know,
like like there's so much weighing me down, so many
thoughts or emotions or sadness or grief.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Grief can feel very heavy.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know, I've also felt light, Yeah, when when I'm
joyous excited about something else happened.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Don't you get in your body?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I do anyway, a sensation of almost floating, which something
is so.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Word like in how people describe it. I feel flighty.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That is that more like uh uh, not thinking clearly?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Is it flighty? Is like you are kind of dippy,
ditsy flighty. You forget things all the time, and your
appointments your lighty.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh but I think that Okay, okay, okay, you're forgetting
things right, you're flighty because you forget things. But maybe
you're forgetting things because you're having some sort of emotion
that's making maybe maybe overcrowded like mine.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Maybe maybe you know what I mean? Or okay, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
But I think we can all relate to this, that
that the way we feel is sometimes very sensory. And
when I was in this train, the trainer, the person
was training us, was saying that that, especially for people
with certain neurological diagnoses, it's especially true that they relate
to feelings through sensations rather than these feeling words that
(08:15):
we have on posters. I think it's important for us
to recognize that when a child says something like I'm
feeling buzzy, we can just accept that as their emotion.
We don't have to start to go, well, are you guilty?
Are you anxious? Are you We can just accept that
as the word. If a human being says to you,
(08:37):
I'm feeling heavy, we don't have to be like, well,
is that what is that?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Is that depressed? Is that overwhelmed?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Is that we can try to find out what's bothering them? Definitely,
we can like sort of say, oh my gosh, share
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But why do we need to define it?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
But I don't know that I need to go Okay,
that concept of you feeling heavy is not legitimate. We
need one of these legitimate words that's on my post.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It doesn't fit into my emotions wheel Could you be
more specific?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
No, come on, we don't have to do that. We
don't have to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And in young children who are especially sensory, right from
ages birth to two and a half, is the sensory
motor phase of development, where children are learning about themselves
in the world through movement and the five senses or
there's more than five.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Actually there's seven. I misstated that. But they're learning about
it through sensory input. How about that?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So, because and then that stays with us, because you
and I still do everything, learn everything, connect to everything
through sensory input. Whether we are hearing it seeing it right,
it's still we remain very very sensory beings. So when
a child says something like I feel buzzy, we shouldn't
(09:56):
laugh at them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Write it off not a feeling, right, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Don't say it's not a feeling. We shouldn't write it off.
We shouldn't laugh at them. We shouldn't always try to
be connecting the dot back to my emotions chart. We
can just accept that, and I can kind of relate
to how buzzy feels. So think about the words that
we're using. I can relate to how buzzy feels. I
can relate to how light and heavy feel.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I can relate to how my brain being overcrowded. I
also can relate to that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I have said to people when they've said how
are you feeling, I've said my brain feels heavy. And
I've also said my brain feels tight. It's making my
brain what I say the other day, and it's making
my brain. It's making my brain tighten, I think, is
what I said, Like there was a sensation in my
head from something that I found very difficult to understand
(10:46):
and confusing, where I just said it's making my brain
tight because there.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Is no word for there's no word for that, because
I think I have used this is making my brain hurt.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, I've done that in that.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
This is too much for me to think about right now.
I think that's what I mean when I say that,
But other people might have a different definition. But like
there's no words to describe that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Feeling, you know, it reminds me of something else.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I have been I have gone to physical therapy,
and I also love my massage therapist by the way,
I love her. So when they are massaging, whether it's
for physical therapy or a good massage therapist, they can
tell you where you have inflammation. And both you're gonna
laugh at this, both the person who does the massage
(11:33):
and my physical therapist. When you have a lot of
swelling that that's like very fluidy and can be broken up,
they both call that crinkly, crinkly. They'll say to me
like your foot feels crinkly today, okay. And I looked
at them and said crinkly, Like, what do you mean crinkly?
And they kind of couldn't describe it, like naughty, very naughty. No,
(11:58):
it's different. It has to do with inflammation, and it
has to do with if they can move, if they
can move it, move it or something. But they'll be
like interesting. Actually brought up that they both use the
same word. It's like a medical term, crinkly, crinkly, use it.
So when I and when I said, and they don't
know each other, these two people, and so independently I said,
(12:20):
what do you mean crinkly? Because they were both using
the same word, they really had a hard time describing
to me what they were feeling. And I think that's
true for children too. Here's where I was going with this.
We've landed, folks. Here's where I was going. The plane's
coming in. So I think children also. If I say,
if a child says to me, I'm feeling the gut
(12:41):
feeling yes, and if I, as an adult were to say,
well are you feeling guilty?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Are you feeling anxious, They're.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Gonna be like kind of like the people with the
swelling where they're like, it's just crinkly. I think they
would just be like, it's just the feeling right here
in my gut.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
It's just But I think that's why since there's when
you keep asking these questions, they just keep repeating the
same words because they don't Yes, there's no.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Other way to describe it.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I feel buzzy, yeah, no, And you keep saying, well,
what do you mean like I feel buzzy, Like there's
no other way to describe it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They're just gonna keep saying the same.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Thing they are.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
They're just gonna yeah, they're just gonna write. Or I
think about when I'm really really nervous and I get
this feeling in my stomach. I my nerves live, like
nervousness is in my stomach, and I get a feeling
that I don't know that there is a word to
describe in an emotion, word on a wheel or something.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I just think, like to say to someone I'm feeling
anxious doesn't do justice to this feeling that I'm having
in my gut, because that's a really strong feeling.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, right.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And so when you are interacting with people and especially
young children, let's not negate those sensory words and say
that's not a feeling word. Let me teach you a
feeling word that is a feeleling words. Yes, and we
need to just respond like we would if they would
have said to us, I'm feeling nervous. When they say
(14:08):
here's how I'm feeling, we need to say to them
something like, I'm sorry you're feeling that way. Everybody feels
that way sometimes. Can you tell me what's hell making
you feel that way? I don't need to start and
I've seen people do this. I've seen people say to them, oh,
that's cold, nervous. I don't necessarily have to do that
every single time.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I don't think we have to define it. I think
it's okay to teach them. You might be here's a
word for it, right, Okay, here's a word. But I
don't have to do it every single time, because I
feel like if you do it every single time, I'm
negating what they're describing that.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
That's what I'm getting at is that if you keep saying,
if you say, oh, that means you're nervous, well maybe
that doesn't mean they're nervous, maybe it's something else, and
they really nervous doesn't encompass right what they're feeling. So
you're just sitting there like, oh, you're just nervous, Like no,
it's it's more than that. And that's why they use
this word instead of saying, hey, I'm just nervous, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Because isn't it true that sometimes, like if if you're
really sad, don't we describe that as I feel like
I have a lump in my throat, my head, hurts
my eyes something. I mean, I think we describe it
in how we feel. So I'm not saying don't teach
them those feelings words. I'm not saying that, folks. I
(15:23):
don't want to get a bunch of emails saying what
are you saying? We shouldn't teach them what sad is
or nervous. Yes you should, but also they get to
describe it for themselves and their own body in however
they describe it, and you can simultaneously they can know
there's something called happiness, and I describe it this way.
(15:44):
I describe it as feeling very light.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Right, because don't you like it's almost like you're putting
the emotion words are making the child's emotions be put
in a box, and they're so much more were to
emotions than just like you're happy, Like no, you can
feel happy and sad at the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
My happy light yes, and another person's happy could be something.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Else, right, I don't know why I feel like when.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
You're when you're only teaching the words that are on
the chart, like I'm saying, yeah, teach the words that
are on the church. Not only teaching that, you're putting
them in a box of like, oh, but my happy
doesn't feel like what this book described or what she's describing,
So is it really happy? And it's like, no, my
happy is different than Cindy's happy. Cindy might be happy
doing something totally different than what.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I'm doing, and it feels different in my body. Yes,
So we're going to encourage you all to expand the emotions.
Talk yes, yes, read your books, Yes, go over your
feelings chart, yes, yes, do all that with the children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Talk about like with the children. Even to sit down
with them and say I'm feeling a little sad today.
You know, here's how I'm feeling a little happy today.
You're welcome to use those words let's just not negate
it when children describe the feeling in their body, or
when any adult does. You know, I think of all
the times where I've said things to my husband, like,
you know, I'm feeling like sluggish today, I'm feeling right,
(17:11):
or I'm feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Slow. I'm feeling my body's moving slow. I'm feeling like
I'm moving slow.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Which can be partly how I feel an emotion.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, because when I feel like I'm going slow, it's
usually because I don't want to do something and that,
and it might be because I'm anxious about it. It might
be sad about it. It might just be like there's
no rush in this. I may as well just you know,
so I'm going slow. Sometimes I find myself driving slow because.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Of whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Because you're anxious, you're anxious about something. Especially where we live, driving.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Is like.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That opens up right in front of you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You never know, you know. So let let's do that, folks.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Let's expand our acceptance of words about how children are
feeling and how each other, how we are all feeling.
If you have any I want to invite everyone to
do something.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Please.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We gave you some, but I'm sure you've heard children
use other words to describe how they are feeling, what
their emotions are. Please send them to us. We would
love to share them. So you go to How Preschool
Teachers Do It dot Com, to the contact form Facebook,
to our Facebook page. You can message us, email us
whatever you know like get in touch.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
With us and let us know.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What are some of those sensory words that you've heard
people use children or adults to describe how it is
they're feeling. And we will catch you next time on
the podcast Everybody by Peepes
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are not random influence. No, we are not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Whether you are new or have been our podcast peep
since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Happy Monday, everybody, Hi, beate,
welcome back to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And Allison is gonna let us know now, especially from
a couple places we've not We think we haven't shouted out.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I don't believe we've shouted these two out either, And
that's very exciting because the last.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Couple episodes they've all been like new places.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
So Hi to the people of the Netherlands, how are you,
and also to the fine people of Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
My son was in the Netherlands not all too long ago,
that's right. Yeah, Yeah, he loved it. Yeah, he loved
the whole thing. Also, he said one of his favorite
cities now is Brussels. But he loved like he traveled
the Netherlands for a little bit and he just he said,
it's amazing, so maybe maybe we'll get there someday. In
the meantime, please tell the people who you know in
(01:13):
Wyoming and the Netherlands and everywhere else.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
To please come and listen to the podcast. We really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We love seeing that there are people in new places
who have found us. So go tell the other people
in your new place that we are here, and we
are very happy to have these discussions every Monday morning
about young children, families, things that impact them, things that
impact early educators and early education.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, so please do.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Come and invite them to be one of our preschool
peeps night and today we're going to talk about since
we're talking about how we feel about having new people joining.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Us, I love these so much. I love this.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So since we're talking about that, we're gonna be talking
about those feelings and emotion words. I know you probably
have charts in classrooms that show different emotions, and I
know you probably have books that talk about things like
what to do when you're mad and what to do
when you're sad, And I know you may have images
up in the classroom and they all usually have the
(02:17):
same sorts of words like this is mad, this is sad,
this is surprised, this is excited, this is happy, this
is frustrated.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right, this is.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Frustrated, this is right. So we tend to use these words,
and there is this big giant emotion wheel with all
of the emotion words. We do want to teach children
emotion words. But there is something that we need to
recognize in our communications and in children's communications, and it's
that not every word that communicates an emotion is on
your emotions chart. Not every word that communicates an emotion
(02:51):
is on the big giant emotion's wheel. If there are
words that human beings used to communicate emotions that have
more to do with how it feels in your body, yes,
than these words that when you think about words, can
we get philosophical for a second.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Okay, okay, stick with me. We're gonna go a little
meta or something.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
When you think about words, they're really just these sounds
that we assigned a definition to, right, made.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Up, construct right, like it's kind of made up, right,
we made this stuff up at one point.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We're deeply in the weeds now.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
But but there are other words, especially children will use
to describe how they're feeling. Because young children, when you
when when they have these big and they have these
big feelings because of their brain development, and when they
have these feelings and when we do, there's a reaction
in your body. Now, when you say to children, how
does that feel, they are more likely to be able
(03:48):
to tell you how it feels in their body. Most
adults have to stop and think about it. Like I've
had people say.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
To me, where are you feeling that in your body?
And I have to pause.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Where For children, it's like right there on the surface,
So very often they'll describe how they feel with these
sorts of words. I was recently attending a train. The
trainer and the person who was facilitating it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Was talking about how her child.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Describes feeling anxious as feeling buzzy. I feel buzzy. Yeah, right,
it's a sensation. It's a sensation to feel buzzy. So
like her child say, I feel buzzy, and you kind
of can almost can't you kind of picture like bees
just buzzing around inside this child.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well, because anxiety is sometimes described as like butterflies in
your stomach kind of.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Feeling right, because you have that fluttery like you're like
little jittery.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Maybe you're just like or maybe you're just like overly
excited and it's all in there and it's just buzzing out.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So it makes sense, I mean to me, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My son, when he was young, and still to this
day sometimes because he knows I know what he means, Okay,
he didn't need to tell me the emotion. He would
come in and he would say to me, mommy, and
he was young and he would say, Mommy, I have
the gut feeling. And I knew that that was anxiety
or guilt. For my son, he didn't he didn't come
(05:14):
in and say as a child, he didn't come in
and say I'm feeling anxious or I'm feeling guilty, or
I'm feeling both anxious and guilty, which.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Is usually what it was. He used to come in
and say, I.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Have the gut feeling, and I understood what sort of
emotion he was trying to express. Right, Right, I've heard
people say I feel heavy when they're sad and depressed
and depressed. You're you're right, I feel heavy.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I feel you're weayed down with something that's a heavy feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I recently, I'm old.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
So I recently went to an appointment and somebody asked
me how I was doing, and I said, my head
feels over crowded.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I use that because, yeah, my head did, see.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So that's like, is it overwhelmed?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I think it's overwhelmed or like where you have so
many thoughts and the thoughts are going all over the
place and you can't really like.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Focus on any one of those thoughts. But I also
think it.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Was like so many emotions mixed in. I didn't have
just one emotion, so there wasn't a word for the
emotion I was feeling. So I kinda had to make
a word, and that's the word that came to my
mind when I described it. And yeah, the person I
was talking to figured it out through talking about it.
But like, if I'm old and I'm still describing feelings
(06:32):
this way and emotions this way, older, older, Okay, then like,
and I think, honestly, it's because there was no definition
for what I was feeling.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
There was no word, right, So sometimes these emotion words
on the charts do not fully describe right what we're
like that heavy I have felt heavy heavy, Yeah, you know,
like like there's so much weighing me down, so many
thoughts or emotions or sadness or grief.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Grief can feel very heavy.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know, I've also felt light, Yeah, when when I'm
joyous excited about something else happened.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Don't you get in your body?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I do anyway, a sensation of almost floating, which something
is so.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Word like in how people describe it. I feel flighty.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That is that more like uh uh, not thinking clearly?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Is it flighty? Is like you are kind of dippy,
ditsy flighty. You forget things all the time, and your
appointments your lighty.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh but I think that Okay, okay, okay, you're forgetting
things right, you're flighty because you forget things. But maybe
you're forgetting things because you're having some sort of emotion
that's making maybe maybe overcrowded like mine.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Maybe maybe you know what I mean? Or okay, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
But I think we can all relate to this, that
that the way we feel is sometimes very sensory. And
when I was in this train, the trainer, the person
was training us, was saying that that, especially for people
with certain neurological diagnoses, it's especially true that they relate
to feelings through sensations rather than these feeling words that
(08:15):
we have on posters. I think it's important for us
to recognize that when a child says something like I'm
feeling buzzy, we can just accept that as their emotion.
We don't have to start to go, well, are you guilty?
Are you anxious? Are you We can just accept that
as the word. If a human being says to you,
(08:37):
I'm feeling heavy, we don't have to be like, well,
is that what is that?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Is that depressed? Is that overwhelmed?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Is that we can try to find out what's bothering them? Definitely,
we can like sort of say, oh my gosh, share
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But why do we need to define it?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
But I don't know that I need to go Okay,
that concept of you feeling heavy is not legitimate. We
need one of these legitimate words that's on my post.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It doesn't fit into my emotions wheel Could you be
more specific?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
No, come on, we don't have to do that. We
don't have to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And in young children who are especially sensory, right from
ages birth to two and a half, is the sensory
motor phase of development, where children are learning about themselves
in the world through movement and the five senses or
there's more than five.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Actually there's seven. I misstated that. But they're learning about
it through sensory input. How about that?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So, because and then that stays with us, because you
and I still do everything, learn everything, connect to everything
through sensory input. Whether we are hearing it seeing it right,
it's still we remain very very sensory beings. So when
a child says something like I feel buzzy, we shouldn't
(09:56):
laugh at them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Write it off not a feeling, right, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Don't say it's not a feeling. We shouldn't write it off.
We shouldn't laugh at them. We shouldn't always try to
be connecting the dot back to my emotions chart. We
can just accept that, and I can kind of relate
to how buzzy feels. So think about the words that
we're using. I can relate to how buzzy feels. I
can relate to how light and heavy feel.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I can relate to how my brain being overcrowded. I
also can relate to that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I have said to people when they've said how
are you feeling, I've said my brain feels heavy. And
I've also said my brain feels tight. It's making my
brain what I say the other day, and it's making
my brain. It's making my brain tighten, I think, is
what I said, Like there was a sensation in my
head from something that I found very difficult to understand
(10:46):
and confusing, where I just said it's making my brain
tight because there.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Is no word for there's no word for that, because
I think I have used this is making my brain hurt.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, I've done that in that.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
This is too much for me to think about right now.
I think that's what I mean when I say that,
But other people might have a different definition. But like
there's no words to describe that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Feeling, you know, it reminds me of something else.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I have been I have gone to physical therapy,
and I also love my massage therapist by the way,
I love her. So when they are massaging, whether it's
for physical therapy or a good massage therapist, they can
tell you where you have inflammation. And both you're gonna
laugh at this, both the person who does the massage
(11:33):
and my physical therapist. When you have a lot of
swelling that that's like very fluidy and can be broken up,
they both call that crinkly, crinkly. They'll say to me
like your foot feels crinkly today, okay. And I looked
at them and said crinkly, Like, what do you mean crinkly?
And they kind of couldn't describe it, like naughty, very naughty. No,
(11:58):
it's different. It has to do with inflammation, and it
has to do with if they can move, if they
can move it, move it or something. But they'll be
like interesting. Actually brought up that they both use the
same word. It's like a medical term, crinkly, crinkly, use it.
So when I and when I said, and they don't
know each other, these two people, and so independently I said,
(12:20):
what do you mean crinkly? Because they were both using
the same word, they really had a hard time describing
to me what they were feeling. And I think that's
true for children too. Here's where I was going with this.
We've landed, folks. Here's where I was going. The plane's
coming in. So I think children also. If I say,
if a child says to me, I'm feeling the gut
(12:41):
feeling yes, and if I, as an adult were to say,
well are you feeling guilty?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Are you feeling anxious, They're.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Gonna be like kind of like the people with the
swelling where they're like, it's just crinkly. I think they
would just be like, it's just the feeling right here
in my gut.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
It's just But I think that's why since there's when
you keep asking these questions, they just keep repeating the
same words because they don't Yes, there's no.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Other way to describe it.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I feel buzzy, yeah, no, And you keep saying, well,
what do you mean like I feel buzzy, Like there's
no other way to describe it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They're just gonna keep saying the same.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Thing they are.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
They're just gonna yeah, they're just gonna write. Or I
think about when I'm really really nervous and I get
this feeling in my stomach. I my nerves live, like
nervousness is in my stomach, and I get a feeling
that I don't know that there is a word to
describe in an emotion, word on a wheel or something.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I just think, like to say to someone I'm feeling
anxious doesn't do justice to this feeling that I'm having
in my gut, because that's a really strong feeling.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, right.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And so when you are interacting with people and especially
young children, let's not negate those sensory words and say
that's not a feeling word. Let me teach you a
feeling word that is a feeleling words. Yes, and we
need to just respond like we would if they would
have said to us, I'm feeling nervous. When they say
(14:08):
here's how I'm feeling, we need to say to them
something like, I'm sorry you're feeling that way. Everybody feels
that way sometimes. Can you tell me what's hell making
you feel that way? I don't need to start and
I've seen people do this. I've seen people say to them, oh,
that's cold, nervous. I don't necessarily have to do that
every single time.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I don't think we have to define it. I think
it's okay to teach them. You might be here's a
word for it, right, Okay, here's a word. But I
don't have to do it every single time, because I
feel like if you do it every single time, I'm
negating what they're describing that.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
That's what I'm getting at is that if you keep saying,
if you say, oh, that means you're nervous, well maybe
that doesn't mean they're nervous, maybe it's something else, and
they really nervous doesn't encompass right what they're feeling. So
you're just sitting there like, oh, you're just nervous, Like no,
it's it's more than that. And that's why they use
this word instead of saying, hey, I'm just nervous, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Because isn't it true that sometimes, like if if you're
really sad, don't we describe that as I feel like
I have a lump in my throat, my head, hurts
my eyes something. I mean, I think we describe it
in how we feel. So I'm not saying don't teach
them those feelings words. I'm not saying that, folks. I
(15:23):
don't want to get a bunch of emails saying what
are you saying? We shouldn't teach them what sad is
or nervous. Yes you should, but also they get to
describe it for themselves and their own body in however
they describe it, and you can simultaneously they can know
there's something called happiness, and I describe it this way.
(15:44):
I describe it as feeling very light.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Right, because don't you like it's almost like you're putting
the emotion words are making the child's emotions be put
in a box, and they're so much more were to
emotions than just like you're happy, Like no, you can
feel happy and sad at the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
My happy light yes, and another person's happy could be something.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Else, right, I don't know why I feel like when.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
You're when you're only teaching the words that are on
the chart, like I'm saying, yeah, teach the words that
are on the church. Not only teaching that, you're putting
them in a box of like, oh, but my happy
doesn't feel like what this book described or what she's describing,
So is it really happy? And it's like, no, my
happy is different than Cindy's happy. Cindy might be happy
doing something totally different than what.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I'm doing, and it feels different in my body. Yes,
So we're going to encourage you all to expand the emotions.
Talk yes, yes, read your books, Yes, go over your
feelings chart, yes, yes, do all that with the children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Talk about like with the children. Even to sit down
with them and say I'm feeling a little sad today.
You know, here's how I'm feeling a little happy today.
You're welcome to use those words let's just not negate
it when children describe the feeling in their body, or
when any adult does. You know, I think of all
the times where I've said things to my husband, like,
you know, I'm feeling like sluggish today, I'm feeling right,
(17:11):
or I'm feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Slow. I'm feeling my body's moving slow. I'm feeling like
I'm moving slow.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Which can be partly how I feel an emotion.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, because when I feel like I'm going slow, it's
usually because I don't want to do something and that,
and it might be because I'm anxious about it. It might
be sad about it. It might just be like there's
no rush in this. I may as well just you know,
so I'm going slow. Sometimes I find myself driving slow because.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Of whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Because you're anxious, you're anxious about something. Especially where we live, driving.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Is like.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That opens up right in front of you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You never know, you know. So let let's do that, folks.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Let's expand our acceptance of words about how children are
feeling and how each other, how we are all feeling.
If you have any I want to invite everyone to
do something.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Please.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We gave you some, but I'm sure you've heard children
use other words to describe how they are feeling, what
their emotions are. Please send them to us. We would
love to share them. So you go to How Preschool
Teachers Do It dot Com, to the contact form Facebook,
to our Facebook page. You can message us, email us
whatever you know like get in touch.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
With us and let us know.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What are some of those sensory words that you've heard
people use children or adults to describe how it is
they're feeling. And we will catch you next time on
the podcast Everybody by Peepes
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