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Emotional self-regulation involves being able to control one’s emotions and resist impulsive behavior in accordance with the demands of a situation. Highly sensitive children feel things deeply and therefore can have big emotional reactions, both positive and negative. As a parent, it can be hard to know how to help your child regulate their emotions. An excellent way to start the conversation and begin working with them is through reading books with them about this topic . Here are ten self-regulation children’s picture books that help teach kids about handling big emotions.

10 Self-regulation Children’s Picture Books

How Do Dinosaurs Say I’M MAD?

Highly sensitive kids often struggle with how to effectively express and handle anger. This books does a great job of demonstrating appropriate and inappropriate ways of handling anger in a humorous way that children can relate too. Plus what child doesn’t love dinosaurs!

Waiting is Not Easy

Our family loves Elephant and Piggie books and this one is no exception. In fact, this is one of my favorites in the series. A hilarious book that tackles the topic of being patient and delayed satisfaction.

The Great Big Book of Feelings

This book explores a wide variety of feelings and helps the reader see how emotions can creep up in a variety of different settings. This is a great book to reference when a child is struggling with a specific feeling, as it also gives ideas for working through big emotions.

I Can Handle It!

In this book, the main character identifies challenging emotions he faces in varying situations and then gives great kid-friendly examples of how he can handle it. An effective story to teach kids how to use positive self-talk when dealing with tough emotions.

Listening to My Body

This book is unique in that it not only addresses the mental side of emotions and feelings, but also the physical side, the body sensations, that can accompany them.

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Of Course It’s a Big Deal

This is a good book to explore with any child who tends to overreact to situations. It shows the main character overreacting in various situations and how his parent teaches him coping strategies he then uses throughout the book. It is a pretty wordy book though, so you may want to use it as more of a reference than a read-aloud.

The Way I Feel

This rhyming picture book is a great introduction to feelings for toddlers and preschoolers. The illustrations reflect the characters feelings well and it teaches about emotions in a simple way that young children can understand.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Storm Cloud

This story uses analogies as it takes the reader on a journey of the everyday ups and downs of big emotions felt by children.

The Color Monster

In this story a young girl tries to help a monster who feels “All mixed up.” Feelings are associated with colors and described in a way that young readers can understand.

Even Superheroes Have Bad Days

Everyone deals with bad days and difficult emotions- even superheroes! This book teaches kids how to control their negative emotions in a way that children will relate to.

You now have 10 self-regulation children’s books that can aid you in teaching emotional regulation skills to your highly sensitive child. They are a great starting point for educating your child about their feelings and teaching them how to choose effective responses.

Does your family have a favorite self- regulation children’s picture book that I didn’t mention? Share it in the comments below, so that we can all benefit from it!