Heart Chart Check-In: Teaching Kids About Emotional Wellness

Heart Chart Check-In (HCCI) is a program that teaches children about feelings and emotional wellness. Children as well as their adult and sibling models and mentors at home and school have an opportunity to recognize, share, express, and regulate their feelings and be heard in age-appropriate ways that become more nuanced and agile over time. They learn about facial expressions, body language, words, actions, and strategies to express themselves genuinely and solve problems. Children learn empathy and how to consider the needs and feelings of others. Heart Chart Check-In offers many crucial benefits for individuals, families, classrooms, and society.With rapid all-encompassing technological change and the impact of social media with its addictive intensity affecting children and adolescents in their precious developmental years, it is vital to do everything we can to help them develop a deeply grounded understanding of themselves, their emotional regulation and guidance system, and an authentic and empowered voice of their own. The Heart Chart Check-In program does this with intentionality, purpose, and child-friendly practicality. We have seen the positive impact this program can have in homes, schools, and churches with children of varying ages and backgrounds. It is, first and foremost, human. Since we all have a heart, facial expressions, and emotions, we can all relate. The key is to provide people with an appealing and easily adaptable vehicle to help them identify, understand, regulate, and express emotions and learn strategies to help cope, overcome difficulty, and succeed during challenging situations for lifelong emotional stability, healing, and growth.We also encourage participants to identify and appreciate serene, peace-filled and happy emotions and thank those who contribute to them. In other words, learning about the attitude of gratitude.