Expressing emotions and telling parents how you feel can be difficult for children and frustrating for parents who only want to help.

An easy way to get a measure of how they feel in terms of angry, irritable, moody etc. is to simply ask them to give you a number between one to ten. Ten is the strongest feeling and one is the lowest. This is about recognising emotions on a scale of one to ten. It is a common tool used in counselling.

Once parents get into asking children,” On a scale of one to ten how are you feeling today?” Children easily get the strength of their feelings.

This is helpful in getting a quick measure of how deep is the feeling. It also works well on a positive note. “ You're happy today. On a scale on one to ten, how happy are you?”