‘Emotional Literacy’ is the ability to recognise, understand, appropriately express and handle our own emotional states and those of other people. Sensing what others are feeling, and handling relationships effectively. Knowing what you are feeling and being able to handle those feeling without having them control you in some way is a critical skill to develop when building positive relationships. Someone working in an emotionally literate way can do this routinely. Developing a greater level of emtional literacy helps us to be able to motivate ourselves to get jobs done, be creative and perform at our peak.

There are 5 key elements in developing emotional literacy:

  • Self-awareness – knowing yourself and what your emotions are telling you
  • Self-regulation – managing and controlling your emotional state
  • Empathy – recognising and responding to the emotional state of others
  • Social Skills – relating to and influencing others
  • Motivation – channelling emotions so you can achieve goals

Although  many children and adults develop their emotional literacy as they grow and develop, others are not as effective in developing in this area and it is essential that we provide motivating and nurturing environments where these skills can be effectively taught and safely practiced.

All information taken from:

‘Practice, Training and Development Guidelines Building Postive Relationships for School Improvement’ Highland Council which can be accessed here.

For further information on Emotional Literacy training, please contact Linda Thom (Promoting Positive Relationships Team)