Emotion Locomotion: Promoting the Emotional Health of Elementary School Children by Recognizing Emotions

Emotion recognition is a critical life skill children need for mental health promotion to meet the complexities and challenges of growing up in the world today. Five nursing students and their instructor designed Emotion Locomotion, a program for children ages 6-8 during a public health nursing practicum for an inner-city parochial school. Emotion Locomotion used an analogy that the "engine'' of a train represents the "individual'' and the train "cars'' represent various emotions, such as happiness, sadness, calmness, and anger. Analysis of pre- and posttest scores showed an increase in appropriate student responses that involved identifying emotions from photographs and in recognition of vocabulary words representing emotions. Students' role playing during puppet shows demonstrated increased appropriate expression of emotions and healthy ways to deal with feelings during scenarios. Programs such as Emotion Locomotion present opportunities to expand the outreach of school nurses and colleges of nursing through community partnerships to provide critical life skills for student populations.