Write a handful of feeling words on separate cards, hand your child a small pile of counters, and tell a story together, placing counters on whichever feelings show up along the way. The Feeling Word Game gives children a concrete, hands-on way to talk about something that’s often hard to put into words directly.
Why this matters
Many children struggle to name their feelings when asked directly, sometimes because the question itself feels intimidating, sometimes because they genuinely haven’t practised the vocabulary yet. Wrapping the conversation inside a game lowers that pressure considerably, and children tend to open up about feelings far more readily when it doesn’t feel like they’re being interrogated about them.
What you need
Eight or so small pieces of paper or card. A marker. A small tin or bowl of counters, buttons, or coins.
How to play
Ask your child to name some feelings a child their age might have, and write each one on a separate card, drawing a simple face to match if they’re not yet reading. Line the cards up where you can both see them.
Tell a short story about yourself first, one that includes both a positive and a difficult moment, and place a counter on each feeling the story touches, more counters for a stronger feeling, fewer for a milder one. This shows your child that a person can hold several feelings at once, and in different amounts.
Then tell a gentle, everyday story about your child, built around a situation they’d recognise, and hand them the counters to place on whichever feelings fit. Take turns telling stories back and forth for as long as feels natural.
Why taking turns matters
Going first yourself does real work here. It shows your child exactly how the game works without them having to guess, and it quietly signals that everyone, adults included, has a mix of feelings worth naming, not just big, difficult ones.
A note on keeping this light
This works best as a relaxed, ongoing habit rather than a single serious sit-down, and it’s worth keeping the stories gentle and age-appropriate rather than steering toward anything heavy. If your child brings up something that seems to be weighing on them more than usual, that’s worth a calmer, more direct conversation on its own, and if a feeling seems to be sticking around and genuinely affecting your child’s day-to-day life, a paediatrician or child therapist is a better next step than another round of the game.
A handful of labelled cards and a tin of counters is a small thing to set up, but it gives a child real, repeated practice putting a name to what they’re feeling, which is a skill that gets easier with use, the same way any other skill does.
