Sensory processing
10 Neurosensory Words for Older Children to Help Express Their Feelings
Developing an emotional vocabulary helps articulate their internal world and fosters better communication with friends, family, and others.
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Key Takeaways
- Building a rich emotional vocabulary helps older children articulate their internal world, and children who understand emotions well tend to get along better with friends, family, and other support networks.1
- Empathy, gratitude, ambivalence, resilience, compassion, pride, envy, disappointment, serenity, and curiosity are ten feeling words worth teaching older children as they learn to express their experiences.
- Ambivalence means feeling two conflicting emotions at the same time, and teaching children that it is okay to feel multiple emotions about the same person or situation can ease inner tension.
- Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficult experiences, and it can be encouraged by helping children view challenges as opportunities for growth.
- Serenity, a sense of calm and inner peace even amid turmoil, can be cultivated through practices such as deep breathing and mindfulness, which may help children manage stress, though research on relaxation techniques in children is still mostly low in quality.2,3
1. Empathy
Understanding and relating to the feelings of others is known as empathy. This advanced emotion skill is key in developing strong interpersonal relationships. Encouraging children to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and consider alternative points of view is the first step toward cultivating an empathetic response.
2. Gratitude
Being aware of and thankful for the kind things others do, for material possessions, and for opportunities in life is known as gratitude. It helps children recognize the good things they have and the values of kindness and generosity. Across studies, practicing gratitude leads to small gains in well-being, on average.4
3. Ambivalence
Experiencing two conflicting emotions at the same time, such as love and hate, is called ambivalence. This can be confusing, but teaching children it’s okay to feel multiple emotions about the same person or situation can ease some inner tension they might be feeling.
4. Resilience
The ability to bounce back from difficult experiences is known as resilience. This inner strength is built through hardship and can be encouraged by teaching children to view challenges as opportunities for growth. It’s an important emotion in teaching children to cope with life’s ups and downs.
5. Compassion
Feeling a deep sympathy for the suffering of others and a desire to help is termed compassion. Encouraging children to express compassion fosters a caring and supportive community. It allows them to not only recognize but also actively respond to the struggles of others with kindness.
6. Pride
Having a sense of satisfaction in one’s accomplishments or in the qualities of someone with whom you are associated is pride. This emotion, when balanced, can foster self-esteem and confidence. Teaching children about healthy pride can motivate them to achieve their personal best.
7. Envy
Feeling discontent and resentful longing aroused by another’s possessions, qualities, or luck is envy. Understanding this emotion can lead to introspective discussions about what is truly important and how to seek one’s own fulfillment without comparing to others.
8. Disappointment
Failing to meet the hopes or expectations one has for oneself or others can lead to disappointment. This is a common emotion when things do not go as planned and learning about it can prepare children for realistic life expectations and how to manage those feelings constructively.
9. Serenity
A sense of calm and inner peace, even in the midst of turmoil, is serenity. Teaching children to recognize and cultivate this emotion through practices such as deep breathing and mindfulness may help them manage stress, though research on relaxation techniques in children is still mostly low in quality.2,3
10. Curiosity
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I help my older child express their feelings better?
Developing a rich emotional vocabulary helps older children articulate their internal world, and children who understand emotions well tend to get along better with friends, family, and other support networks, though the link is modest.1 Teaching specific feeling words gives them language to describe their experiences.
What does it mean when my child feels two emotions at once, like love and hate?
Experiencing two conflicting emotions at the same time is called ambivalence. It can be confusing, but teaching children it is okay to feel multiple emotions about the same person or situation can ease some of the inner tension they may feel.
How do I teach my child to bounce back from hard experiences?
The ability to bounce back from difficult experiences is called resilience. You can encourage it by teaching children to view challenges as opportunities for growth, which helps them cope with life's ups and downs.
What is the difference between healthy pride and envy in children?
Pride is a sense of satisfaction in one's accomplishments or in the qualities of someone you are associated with, and when balanced it can foster self-esteem and confidence. Envy is discontent and resentful longing aroused by another's possessions, qualities, or luck, and understanding it can lead to discussions about seeking one's own fulfillment without comparing to others.
How can I help my child feel calmer when they are stressed?
Serenity is a sense of calm and inner peace, even in the midst of turmoil. Teaching children to recognize and cultivate it through practices such as deep breathing and mindfulness may help them manage stress, though research on relaxation techniques in children is still mostly low in quality.2,3
At what age can children name their own emotions?
Simple labels like happy, sad, angry and scared usually arrive in the toddler and preschool years; most 3-year-olds already use words like happy, sad and angry. The harder work comes later: naming mixed feelings, telling frustration from disappointment, and noticing a feeling before it has taken over. Emotion vocabulary roughly doubles every two years between ages 4 and 11, then grows more slowly, and some words come late: in one survey, only about two-thirds of 11- and 12-year-olds understood “compassionate.”5 That is why words like the ones on this page are worth teaching to older children rather than assuming they already have them.
Sources
- Trentacosta CJ, Fine SE. Emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavior problems in childhood and adolescence: a meta-analytic review. Social Development. 2010;19(1):1–29. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00543.x (PMID 21072259). Emotion knowledge showed “small to medium-sized relations” with social competence and with fewer internalizing and externalizing problems: “relatively consistent yet modest relations.”
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Relaxation Techniques: What You Need To Know. Breathing exercises are a relaxation technique; “Some relaxation techniques may help children and adolescents with pain, anxiety and depression” and other problems, “But much of the supporting research was rated as low quality.” Checked October 6, 2026.
- National Institute of Mental Health. I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet. Lists relaxation exercises “such as deep breathing” and practicing mindfulness among things to try when stress feels overwhelming. Checked October 6, 2026.
- Choi H, Cha Y, McCullough ME, Coles NA, Oishi S. A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2025;122(28):e2425193122. doi:10.1073/pnas.2425193122 (PMID 40627390). Across 145 papers and 24,804 participants, gratitude interventions “led to small overall increases in well-being.”
- Baron-Cohen S, Golan O, Wheelwright S, Granader Y, Hill J. Emotion word comprehension from 4 to 16 years old: a developmental survey. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience. 2010;2:109. doi:10.3389/fnevo.2010.00109 (PMID 21151378).
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Reports that more than 75% of 3-year-olds use words such as happy, sad and angry; in 377 children aged 4 to 16, the emotion vocabulary “doubled every 2 years” from 4 to 11 and then leveled off, and “compassionate” was understood by 67.8% at ages 11 to 12.
Medical disclaimer. This page is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about your child.