Improving Emotional Intelligence-For You And Your Child

Our traditional approach to gauging someone’s intelligence has been to evaluate memory, logical reasoning, and linguistic abilities. An idea gaining acceptance around the world is that intelligence is beyond Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and our Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is vital too. Parents are the primary source of emotional learning for children, and hence, it is their responsibility to develop EQ in themselves first, and then their children. Read on.

- Jinobi Narayanan

Emotional Intelligence for your child’s future The “Future of Jobs” report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2018 listed Emotional Intelligence among the top 10 skills required for employees. The report also states that skills such as memory, writing, and math are declining in importance. The key reason behind this is that we are undergoing a fourth industrial revolution characterised by artificial intelligence and robotics. Studies estimate that 30% – 50% of current jobs will disappear or will be replaced by new jobs by the next decade due to the impact of automation. Some jobs, however, cannot be easily automated. An example is a nurse’s job, which is more than administering drugs because it is based on the emotion of care and compassion. In some jobs, creativity will be a sought-after skill, and for one to be creative, emotions such as curiosity and empathy are essential. As parents, we need to keep these technological developments in mind and raise children with emotional intelligence.

Education and Emotional Intelligence

Two years back, a video went viral on social media that showed doctors fighting in the operating theatre, eventually leading to a child’s death. Very often, we hear stories from Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, about techies involved in bizarre murders and suicides. When I discuss these headlines with others, I often hear, “How can educated people do this?” Well, that is a good question, but it is essential to investigate the phrase “being educated” a little further. Those doctors have learned medicine, and the techies have learned programming skills, but the common curriculum that they were missing is Emotional Intelligence.