In the works since I released my original Emotion Sensation Wheel in 2020, my Kids’ Emotion Sensation Wheel is a special resource aimed at elementary-age kids. Rather than a simplified adult version, the Kids’ Emotion Sensation Wheel is a developmentally-tailored resource designed to help kids (and parents!) build emotional literacy through body awareness.

If you’ve used my adult emotion sensation wheel, you might recognize some similarities, but gone are sophisticated words and more nuanced sensations. For this version, I worked directly with parents and educators to completely reimagine this tool for early elementary brains.

In the kids’ versions, the layout, the words, and the visuals were all chosen to help kids ages 7–10(ish) begin connecting the dots to name and talk about how what’s happening in their body might be connected to what they are feeling.

How the Kids’ Emotion Sensation Wheel Works:

For kids, like adults, emotions first show up in the body. Wiggles, tummy aches, a fast heart, or the sudden urge to bolt from the room show up long before the vocabulary and awareness needed to talk about emotions.

This wheel is designed to help foster growth towards that skill – so the kids in your life can grow up a little more skilled at communicating how they’re feeling (which, as they grow up, means getting a leg up on communicating boundaries, getting needs met in healthy ways, and sharing openly with friends and partners)¹²

This adapted emotion sensation wheel is a visual tool that can help kids slow down, notice when something on the wheel matches something they’ve experienced, and grow those oh-so-important neural connections that recognize: “Oh! That’s what that feeling is.”

Like a wall built brick by brick, these moments of awareness, recognition, and connection are one foundation (along with attachment) that emotional regulation (aka, the ability to stay in a window of tolerance, avoid meltdowns, and calm down) is built on.

How it’s Structured

The Kids’ Emotion Sensation Wheel isn’t just a simplified, age-appropriate version of the original. With feedback from parents and educators, I reworked this resource, added visual cues (in the form of emojis! 😃⛈️🎈), and made significant edits for little minds.

Some changes from the adult version:

• The kids’ wheel uses language that feels intuitive for elementary-age kids.
  • Where the adult version uses words like shuddering and writhing, the kids’ wheel uses easier-to-grasp words like twisty or uneasy.
• Some terms were kept from the original version (like mad, hurt, and jumpy), others swapped (like using shy rather than embarrassed), and some were added by request (like shame).
• Development for this resource was very different from the original Emotion Sensation Wheel. The original emotion sensation wheel was created by me and a fellow therapist and close friend acting out dramatic emotions and then describing the feeling to each other. The kids’ emotion wheel was a work of community, as I integrated the voices from parents and educators I’ve worked with in the years since.
• Instead of editing for precise accuracy, this resource is structured to prioritize language that meets kids where they are. The goal here is connection and understanding, not clinical accuracy.

How to Use the Kids’ Emotion Sensation Wheel

This tool is a great fit for use in kids’ therapy sessions, classrooms, or at home. It may also be appropriate for some adolescents and adults with alexithymia.

This wheel can support you and the kids you care for in:

• Identifying emotions (or body sensations!) during check-ins.
• Connecting physical sensations to feelings during mindfulness practices.
• Exploring meltdowns or behavior incidents (after getting regulated!) with curiosity.

It’s also a great fit for kids in art-based SEL work, and can be used alongside movement-based activities or somatic interventions.

Notes on this Release from Lindsay

This wheel was born out of real-world feedback. After releasing the original emotion sensation wheel, I heard from therapists and parents of younger kids asking for something that would meet the developmental needs of early elementary ages. First, I sketched a version by hand, then spent several sessions over many weeks tweaking it with feedback.

Today, I’m releasing this new emotion wheel resource in several visual formats (pastel, bright, black-and-white, and emoji), so you can choose what works best for your space and your kids. The emoji-feeling wheel may work best for kids who are more visual thinkers, while the plain or pastel can be a less complicated, more easily understood resource for other kids.

Want to try it out? You can get the downloadable printable version through my Patreon, or download here on lindsaybraman.com.

If you use this with your kids or clients, I’d love to hear how it goes. Drop a comment or tag me on social media—I love seeing my work out in the world, helping little humans learn to name what they feel. 💛

1. Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C. E., Weissberg, R. P., & Durlak, J. A. (2017). Social and emotional learning as a public health approach to education. The Future of Children, 27(1), 13–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44219019 [↩]
2. Paolini, A. C. (2020). Social emotional learning: Key to career readiness. Anatolian Journal of Education, 5(1), 125–134. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1249147.pdf [↩]