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FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

Fostering Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in Toddlers: Strategies from Pediatric Psychology

Learn evidence-based pediatric strategies for fostering emotional intelligence (EQ) in toddlers to support their cognitive and emotional development.

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Growing Emotional Awareness

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and understand feelings. In toddlers, this skill is just beginning to take shape and may be supported through everyday interactions.

Encouraging Emotional Growth

Parents and caregivers can play a role in helping toddlers navigate their emotional landscapes.

  1. Naming emotions may help toddlers build a vocabulary for their feelings.
  2. Observing how others feel can support the development of empathy.
  3. Creating a supportive environment may encourage children to express themselves more freely.

The evidence base for this topic

6 peer-reviewed sources, each verified against its PubMed record and labelled by study type. These are the literature this topic rests on rather than a citation for every individual sentence — see how we source.

  1. Father involvement and emotion regulation during early childhood: a systematic review

    BMC psychology · 2024 · Systematic Review · PMID 39558210

  2. Self-regulation and frontal EEG alpha activity during infancy and early childhood: A multilevel meta-analysis

    Developmental science · 2022 · Meta-Analysis · PMID 35737962

  3. Physiological measurement of emotion from infancy to preschool: A systematic review and meta-analysis

    Brain and behavior · 2021 · Meta-Analysis · PMID 33336555

  4. Review: Defining Positive Emotion Dysregulation: Integrating Temperamental and Clinical Perspectives

    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2023 · Review · PMID 36007814

  5. Conceptualizing Emotion Regulation and Coregulation as Family-Level Phenomena

    Clinical child and family psychology review · 2022 · Review · PMID 35098427

  6. Emotion regulation in early childhood: Implications for socioemotional and academic components of school readiness

    Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2020 · Review · PMID 31961177