Many Words for Snow and Few for Emotion

Teachers from a school near the Arctic circle who work with children of mostly Inuit families find that this unique cultural group has a "limited vocabulary for talking about emotions as well as limited strategies for managing their emotions effectively." Recently these teachers travelled to Yale where researchers have developed a comprehensive emotion skills curriculum for children that trains the entire school community ("everybody with a face," they say) how to Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate emotions (acronym RULER).

Teachers from the Arctic share their Yale training experience in this video:

See full article in Yale News.

"The RULER approach to social-emotional learning is an evidence-based program that is rooted in the original scientific theory of emotional intelligence developed here at Yale University," says director Dr. Marc Brackett.

The Inuit children are on their way to learning a rich vocabulary for understanding and managing their feelings.