The Thermometer Of Emotions

Understanding emotions from an early age is essential to understanding how we are, what we feel, and how we can regulate ourselves. One tool for working on these important aspects in childhood is the Emotions Thermometer.

In this article, we tell you what it is, how to use it and why it can be beneficial for the little ones. As we will see, it is a tool that we can personalize with them and that will allow us to work on aspects such as identifying emotions and regulating emotions.

The thermometer of emotions: what is it?

The Emotions Thermometer or Emotional Thermometer is a very useful activity for working on emotions, whether with children or adolescents. However, this tool is mainly used with children and people with intellectual disabilities.

It is a visual scale that measures the intensity of our emotions and is based on images, drawings, photographs or emoticons. We can customize it to our liking and adapt it to the age or group we want to work with.

What is it for ?

It is a very useful tool in infant therapy or in early childhood education. It can be very useful for children who have difficulty defining what they are feeling and quantifying the intensity of their emotions.

Thus, it allows us to identify, label and express emotions, on the one hand. On the other hand, it helps us to scale the intensity of the emotions that the child feels, until reaching the point of “no return” (anger), on a scale of 1 to 5, normally. Each number corresponds to an emotion.

Emotions scale: 1 to 5

The scale normally includes five emotions. The former is a happy face and the latter is an angry face. Between the two, intermediate or more “neutral” emotions.

The idea is to identify where the child is and to teach him strategies to manage his anger. To get a rough idea, we can include the following emotions (to choose from):

• Happiness joy
• Boredom / doubt / slight agitation
• Annoyance (onset of anger)
• Anger
• Wrath, fury (higher intensity, the “point of no return”)

Who particularly benefits from this tool?

While this is a beneficial tool for all kinds of people, it is designed especially for young children. We know that visual aids and pictures are very useful for children, especially when they do not know how to express certain emotions or when they have difficulty managing their anger.

On the other hand, the emotion thermometer can be particularly beneficial for people who are not able to communicate verbally. For example, people with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder.

Children who have difficulty talking about their emotions, whether to identify them, label them, etc., can also benefit greatly from this tool. Teens with similar characteristics may also find it beneficial to use it.

The different types

It is a creative tool, which can be designed using models or images from the Internet. But the final touch will be given by us: we must adapt the technique to our interests.

There are different types of emotion thermometers. We can find, for example, thermometers with:

• Photographs
• Pictures
• Drawings
• Emoticons
• Real faces

How to use the thermometer of emotions?

There are a few essential steps that can help us get the most out of this tool. We detail them below.

Discuss each picture or drawing with the child

Once you have designed your Emotions Thermometer, ask the child what they see in each picture, drawing or emoticon you have selected. The goal is for them to label and describe, in their own words (and with help if needed), each emotion or condition.

Decide on an “anger action plan”

The last emotion on the Emotions Thermometer – the “hottest” – is anger or rage. Another important step in using this tool with your child is to decide together what strategies you can use if you become angry.

It is important to let him know that it is okay and valid to feel anger or rage, but that the way to express that anger must be appropriate. There are many strategies to use. Here are some ideas:

• Breathe deeply
• Count to 10
• Change place / go to the room to be alone
• Note what happens to you
• Practice the turtle technique
• Change game

The Emotions Thermometer can be a fun tool for children. You can try to let them design it themselves, so they will feel like they are part of the process.

For example, they can decorate it in their own way or use photos of their own faces that express different emotions. So, when creating, we can also take advantage of it to work on other emotional aspects and other skills.

Do you think the Emotions Thermometer is useful? How would you work with this tool? The proposed ideas are there to guide you, everyone will have to adapt the technique to their children and their needs.

Our thoughts

According to Buddhism, the most harmful emotions all stem from a single emotion: fear. We invite you to find out more here.