Can movies help parents break down complex emotions for children?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The conversation around Inside Out 2 seems to be still going strong, months after its release. It offers food for thought to adults as well, especially the climax scene—the one in which the 13-year-old protagonist, Riley, has a panic attack.

Her heart races as Anxiety, the new emotion introduced in the story, takes over. It’s a downward spiral until a certain sense of self-acceptance kicks in, that her sense of self is a combination of all that is good in her, combined with the not-so-pleasant thoughts and memories. “Perhaps if we had understood these emotions better as children, we would have handled them better as adults," a mother to an 11-year-old told me recently.

Counselors agree with this stream of thought. They believe that it is important to talk about emotions with children from a very young age, even the complex ones. This prepares them for the uncertainties and vagaries of the future.

According to Mumbai-based child psychologist, Payal Narang, such conversations need to start as early as three to four years of age. “At this age, children begin to recognise and verbalise their feelings, making it an ideal time to introduce concepts like anxiety, envy and embarrassment in simple terms," she says. Open communication about emotions helps children manage their own feelings, fosters emotional intelligence and builds a strong parent-child relationship.

Emotional competence—or how children learn to express and control their emotions—is crucial. In the movie’s prequel, Riley was shown as an 11-year-old girl, who had just moved cities and was adjusting to a new life. The core emotions at that point—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger—reflected the way the child responded to certain