2.2 Analyse how a child’s feelings and emotions could impact on their actions

This guide will help you answer 2.2 Analyse how a child’s feelings and emotions could impact on their actions.

Children’s actions are strongly linked to how they feel. Emotions can influence the way they behave, respond to others, and engage with play or learning. In playwork, recognising these links lets you provide more effective support. You can create environments that respond to children’s emotional needs and help develop their social and emotional skills.

Understanding the way feelings affect behaviour is important in every play setting. Actions taken by a child often reflect what is happening inside them emotionally. This can be positive or negative, short term or long term. A professional approach means observing, listening, and responding in ways that build trust and security.

How Feelings Can Influence Behaviour

Feelings and emotions can drive behaviour in direct and visible ways. For example, when a child feels excited, they may be energetic, speak quickly, and take more risks in play. If the child feels anxious, withdrawn, or sad, they might avoid activities or be reluctant to interact.

Some common patterns include:

• Happiness can lead to cooperation, sharing, and engagement in group play
• Anger may lead to shouting, hitting, or rejecting rules
• Fear may cause withdrawal, hiding, or refusal to take part
• Boredom may create restlessness, distraction, or disruptive behaviour
• Pride can result in a child encouraging others and showing leadership
• Frustration may lead to giving up or expressing aggression

Emotional Development and Actions in Playwork Settings

Children’s emotional development is ongoing. They learn to name feelings, control impulses, and use strategies to handle strong emotions. Until these skills are well developed, emotions can have a strong impact on actions in ways that might seem impulsive or unpredictable.

In playwork settings:

• Younger children may react physically to emotions by running, throwing, or grabbing
• Older children may use words, but still find it hard to stop themselves from speaking in anger or being unkind
• Some children show emotions through creative outlets such as drawing or building, while others show emotions through changes in energy levels

Playworkers can support development by modelling calm responses, encouraging emotional vocabulary, and helping children recognise how feelings change behaviour.

Positive Feelings and Actions

Positive emotions often bring positive actions. When a child feels secure, respected, and valued, they can focus on play and exploration. They may show kindness, patience, and cooperation. A child feeling joyful may invent creative games, invite others to join, and work through disagreements more easily.

Such actions help to build friendships, strengthen group bonds, and promote a safe and productive play environment.

Examples of positive feelings leading to positive actions:

• Confidence leading to trying new equipment or activities
• Feeling cared for leading to helping peers and sharing resources
• Excitement leading to taking part fully in team-based games

Negative Feelings and Actions

Negative emotions can cause actions that disrupt play or harm relationships. Anger may come from feeling ignored or treated unfairly. The resulting behaviour could be hitting, shouting, or refusing to follow group agreements. Sadness might result in isolation or lack of participation, which can affect the child’s social connections.

Common examples include:

• Frustration leading to breaking toys, leaving a game abruptly, or arguing
• Anxiety leading to clinging to adults, refusing to speak, or avoiding activities
• Jealousy leading to excluding other children or mocking them
• Feeling misunderstood leading to defiance or refusal to cooperate

Recognising these links early allows a playworker to step in with respectful and effective support.

The Link Between Emotional Regulation and Actions

Emotional regulation means managing reactions to feelings. Some children have strong skills in this area and can calm themselves or talk through feelings before reacting. Others may not yet have these skills and act impulsively.

Poor regulation often leads to actions that are driven by the emotion without much thought for the outcome. This might include hitting before considering the consequences, or shouting in frustration without trying to explain the problem.

Playworkers can help by:

• Providing quiet spaces for calming down
• Encouraging children to name their feelings out loud
• Modelling problem-solving strategies
• Praising efforts to regulate emotions

Social Context and Peer Influence

Children’s emotions are influenced by what is happening around them. Peer interactions can trigger strong feelings quickly. Acceptance by friends often boosts self-esteem and leads to helpful actions, such as supporting others or working well in teams. Rejection or teasing can cause sadness or anger, which may result in the child avoiding the group or acting in aggressive ways.

Playworkers should observe:

• How friendships affect participation in activities
• Which children feel left out or included
• How conflicts between peers are resolved
• How group expectations impact behaviour

By noticing these signs, workers can offer support to help children handle group situations positively.

External Factors That Can Affect Feelings and Actions

Children’s emotions are not limited to the play setting. Life outside the environment can influence how they act while at play.

Factors may include:

• Home stress such as family disagreements
• Tiredness from poor sleep
• Physical discomfort
• Hunger or thirst
• Changes such as moving house or changing school

Each of these can affect emotional stability. For example, hunger can create irritability which may lead to arguments. Tiredness can reduce patience, making cooperation harder.

Playworkers can support children by recognising these signs and adjusting expectations and activities to meet current emotional states.

Observing and Reflecting

Observation is a key tool for analysing how feelings affect actions. Watching body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and movement offers clues. Frequent withdrawal from activities may point to ongoing sadness or anxiety. Sudden bursts of energy may reflect excitement or attempts to mask worry.

Reflecting on these observations means thinking about patterns in behaviour:

• Does the child act differently at certain times of day?
• Are there activities that trigger strong emotions?
• Are particular peers linked to changes in behaviour?

Using this information can guide planning and support strategies.

Supporting Children to Link Feelings with Actions

Helping children make the connection between how they feel and what they do is an important skill. It builds self-awareness and supports emotional growth.

Ways to support this include:

• Encouraging conversation about feelings during and after play
• Using stories or role-play to explore actions linked to emotions
• Helping children think about how alternative actions might change outcomes
• Offering praise when a child responds well to a strong emotion

These strategies can reduce the intensity of disruptive behaviours and help children make thoughtful choices.

Cultural and Individual Differences

Children come from different backgrounds and may express emotions in varied ways. Cultural norms can influence how feelings are shown. In some families, emotions are openly shared. In others, they may be kept private.

Individual temperament also plays a role. Some children are naturally expressive, while others are reserved. Recognising these differences helps to avoid misinterpretation of actions. A quiet child is not necessarily sad, and a loud child is not always happy.

Impact of Unmet Emotional Needs

When a child’s emotional needs are not met, their actions may show signs of stress, frustration, or withdrawal. Unmet needs could include lack of attention, affection, or the chance to express themselves.

This can result in:

• Aggressive outbursts
• Poor concentration in play activities
• Isolation from peer groups
• Resistance to instructions

Addressing these needs through consistent support and a caring environment can improve outcomes.

Building Positive Emotional Responses Through Play

Play offers many opportunities to foster healthy emotional responses. Group activities can teach cooperation, patience, and empathy. Risk-based play can help children handle excitement and fear in constructive ways. Creative play can help process difficult emotions through art, music, or storytelling.

Playworkers can encourage emotional balance by:

• Allowing children to set play goals
• Respecting their emotional boundaries
• Supporting them in resolving disputes calmly
• Celebrating successes and milestones

Final Thoughts

Feelings and emotions shape the way children act in all areas of life, especially in playwork settings. By looking closely at these links, you can understand why certain behaviours appear and how they might change. Positive feelings tend to bring collaborative and creative actions, while negative emotions can lead to withdrawal or conflict. Neither is fixed, and with support, children can develop ways to manage and respond to their feelings more effectively.

A playworker who observes, reflects, and responds with empathy can make a significant difference in a child’s ability to connect their emotions to their actions. This helps build resilience, social skills, and emotional intelligence, supporting the child’s overall development and making the play setting a safe and enriching place.