How Brain Development Shapes Feelings and How You Can Help
- Ready Rocket Resources
- May 25, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: May 22
After reading this article, you will:
Understand the important link between brain development and your child’s emotional health
Learn how brain growth influences your child’s emotional experiences
Discover practical ways to support healthy emotional development in your child
See how positive relationships impact your child’s emotional well-being
Explore effective strategies to help your child express and manage their emotions
Parenting can sometimes feel like a journey full of unknowns, especially when it comes to understanding your child’s emotions. Your child’s brain is growing and changing rapidly, shaping how they feel, think, and respond to the world around them. By learning about how brain development influences emotions, you can better support your child’s emotional wellbeing and help them flourish.
In this article, we’ll explore how your child’s brain and emotions are connected, share helpful insights about their emotional growth, and offer gentle strategies you can use to nurture their emotional health. With this knowledge, you can create a warm and supportive space where your child feels safe to express themselves and grow with confidence.
What’s Happening in Your Child’s Developing Brain?
Your child’s brain develops quickly in their early years, especially areas involved in emotions, memory, and self-control, such as the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. As these areas strengthen their connections, your child gradually becomes better at recognising their feelings and managing their reactions.
The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making and impulse control, develops over time. This means your child is continuously learning new ways to handle emotions and understand other people’s feelings.
Why Brain Development Matters for Your Child’s Emotional Wellbeing
As your child’s brain matures, they naturally become more aware of their emotions and gain better skills to regulate them. This also helps them understand others’ feelings, which supports positive social interactions.
It’s important to remember that your child’s environment plays a big role too. Experiences like stress or change can affect brain development, but a loving and supportive environment encourages healthy emotional growth and resilience.
Practical Ways You Can Support Your Child’s Emotional Growth
Understanding your child’s emotional development means you can gently support their wellbeing in everyday life. Here are some ideas you might find helpful:
Build Loving and Secure Relationships: Spending warm, caring time with your child helps them feel safe and supported, which is key to developing emotional skills.
Encourage Your Child to Talk About Their Feelings: Helping your child name and express their emotions lets them know it’s okay to feel a wide range of things. Resources like The Galaxy Guide to Running My Rocket offer an engaging story and activities that make it easier for children to understand and share their feelings.
Make Time for Play and Physical Activity: Play offers a natural way for children to explore emotions and learn social skills. Physical activities also promote positive feelings by releasing endorphins that help reduce stress.
Introduce Mindfulness and Calm Practices: Simple mindfulness exercises such as deep breathing or body scans can help your child feel more present and calm. The Galaxy Guide to Running My Rocket includes more than 100 easy strategies that includes mindfulness and science-informed techniques to support children’s emotional regulation.
Create a Safe and Predictable Routine: Consistent routines and clear expectations provide a sense of security for your child, helping them feel more confident in managing their emotions.
Want to Learn More About These Strategies in Action?
💻 Ready Rocket has a range of supports for parents, professionals, and educators who want to confidently guide children through big emotions in a way that’s supportive, science-informed, and truly neuroaffirming.
Choose the Path That’s Right for You:
👨👩👧👦 Online Emotions Workshop – Parents & Carers
🕒 4-hour self-paced training
Gain the tools and knowledge to support your child through emotional dysregulation with confidence and compassion.
🧠 Online Emotions Workshop – Therapists & Allied Health Professionals
🕒 4.5-hour self-paced training
Learn a developmentally-informed, neuroaffirming approach to regulation support for diverse clients and therapy goals.
🏫 Ready Rocket School Learning Program – Educators
A classroom-ready, whole-school emotional regulation program built on the same powerful framework with extension into these concepts and more! Includes developmentally tailored content for Kindergarten, Pre-Primary, Year 1, and Year 2.
Perfect for early childhood and primary teachers looking for practical, evidence-aligned emotional literacy education.
References: Johnson, M. H. (2001). Functional brain development in humans. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(7), 475-483.
Malik, S., & Marwaha, R. (2018). Temperament and its Impact on Child Development: A Review. Journal of Child and Adolescent Behaviour, 6(4), 1-6.
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., Gold, A. L., Duys, A., Lambert, H. K., Peverill, M., ... & Nelson, C. A. (2015). Maltreatment exposure, brain development, and the adolescent transition: A developmental neurocognitive perspective. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 192-205.
Perry, B. D., & Szalavitz, M. (2006). The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing. Basic Books.
Tottenham, N. (2014). The importance of early experiences for neuro-affective development. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, 16, 109-129.
@readyrocketresources
Join our community on instagram!
