Feelings Wheel for Kids
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A feelings wheel for kids is a psychotherapeutic tool that mental health clinicians can use to support young clients in identifying their emotions.
In this article, we'll provide information on the benefits of using a feelings wheel for kids in your practice, and provide a free downloadable emotion wheel for kids that you can save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use with clients.
What is a feelings wheel for kids?
While emotional theory dates back to ancient China and Greece, more recent theories about basic emotions emerged in the late 1900s, with psychologists like Carroll E. Izard, Paul Ekman, and Robert Plutchik.
Plutchik is perhaps more well known in this arena because he offered a visual explanation of emotions using a wheel diagram with eight basic emotions, which led to many variations of the wheel.
In the center of the feelings wheel, Plutchik listed the following basic emotions:
- Sadness
- Joy
- Anticipation
- Anger
- Fear
- Disgust
- Trust
- Surprise
As you zoom out of each emotion, you’ll see two additional categories of more complex, but related feelings.
For example, for anger, the additional categories are:
- The person may be feeling let down, humiliated, bitter, mad, aggressive, frustrated, distant, and critical.
- Or, the more in-depth feeling might be hostile, infuriated, annoyed, betrayed, resentful, provoked, jealous, and indignant.
Let’s consider this in a client context. Sara may show up to therapy furious about a fight she had with her mom. After looking at a wheel of emotions worksheet, she identifies feeling angry as the basic emotion in the center of the wheel. She then traces along that emotion toward the outer edges of the wheel, and identifies that she is actually feeling let down and betrayed by her mother.
The other core emotions included in the feelings wheel are:
Sadness
- Level 1: Grief, hurt, loneliness, vulnerability, despair, guilt, depression, and disappointment.
- Level 2: Isolated, abandoned, grief, powerlessness, rejection, shame, emptiness, inferiority, insecurity, fragile, and embarrassed.
Happiness
- Level 1: Excitement, gratitude, interest, pride, powerful, peaceful, trusting, optimistic, accepted, and playful.
- Level 2: Aroused, cheeky, successful, respected, valued, confident, creative, elated, loving, free, joyful, thankful, intimate, and inspired.
Surprised
- Level 1: Startled, confused, amazed, and excited.
- Level 2: Dismayed, disillusioned, awe, eager, energetic, shocked, bewildered, perplexed, or astonished.
Fear
- Level 1: Scared, anxious, insecure, weak, rejected, or threatened.
- Level 2: Helpless, frightened, inadequate, overwhelmed, worried, nervous, insecure, exposed, excluded, worthless, and insignificant.
Disgust
- Level 1: Disapproving, disappointed, awful, and repelled.
- Level 2: Horrified, detestable, embarrassed, and judgmental.
The emotion wheel for kids, which lists just the basic emotions, is a simplified version of the adult emotions wheel. An emotion wheel with faces is often helpful for children, as it allows them to relate to the facial expressions of these emotions.
Depending on the age of your clients, a feelings wheel worksheet may include the following feelings:
- Happy
- Sad
- Worried
- Excited
- Scared
- Confused
- Angry
- Bored
- Surprised
- Embarrassed
A preschool emotions worksheet, on the other hand, may just include the emotions happy, sad, worried, angry, or excited, and the accompanying facial expressions.
How can a wheel of emotions worksheet help young clients?
A feelings wheel for kids can help your young clients:
- Identify and make sense of their emotions and feelings
- Get to the root cause of difficult emotions or triggering events
- Strengthen emotional regulation and learn new coping strategies
- Learn ways to express their emotions
- Identify their needs and values
- Understand how emotions are expressed in others by using the worksheet as a visual aid
- Explore potential explanations for emotions in others
- Reframe thoughts and feelings or identify alternative explanations
- Build self-esteem, confidence, and self-awareness
- Build emotional maturity and relationship skills
What’s included in the feelings wheel for kids worksheet?
The feelings wheel for kids worksheet contains two feelings wheels for different age ranges: one for preschool-age clients and the second for children ages 4 to 11. It also includes an emotional awareness worksheet to match emotions to different facial expressions.
You can use the emotion wheel for kids in various ways:
- As a handout to remind clients what you talked about in session
- To kick off a therapy session and build rapport
- As a visual aid to identify other’s feelings and facial expressions
- To explore how different emotions feel in their body
- To explore situations or environments connected to their emotions and to process those experiences
- As an icebreaker at school
- To highlight unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors associated with certain emotions, and to provide an opportunity for reframing them and problem solving
- To identify a need for additional support, resources, and potential referrals
Sources
- Ekman, P. (1999). Basic emotions. In T. Dalgleish & M. J. Power (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion.
- Izard C. E. (2009). Emotion theory and research: highlights, unanswered questions, and emerging issues. Annual review of psychology.
- Plutchik R. (2001). The nature of emotions: Human emotions have deep evolutionary roots, a fact that may explain their complexity and provide tools for clinical practice.
- Plutchik, R. (1982). A psychoevolutionary theory of emotions. Social Science Information.
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