The first step to teaching your child a more extensive emotional vocabulary is to begin an open and ongoing discussion about emotions and feelings. Discuss a variety of different emotions, offering examples to help your child grasp new words and concepts. Emphasize the importance of being able to pick up on emotional cues to gauge how another person is feeling and to display to others how we are feeling. Encourage your child to verbally express how he is feeling; when he is unable to articulate a certain emotion, provide him with the proper words to describe that feeling.
Give your child the opportunity to practice with the new vocabulary by testing it out in the mirror. Review the words you've covered, and then ask your child to display particular emotions with facial expressions in front of a mirror in your home. You can also use this activity to introduce and explain new concepts. For a more challenging reflection exercise, give the child a specific scenario and have her create a face that demonstrates the way the person in the example might feel. You can accompany the facial expressions with sounds as these also provide cues for being able to identify certain emotional responses.
Use story time as an opportunity to further explore your child's new emotional vocabulary. You could select a title that has to do specifically with teaching children about emotions, or you could choose a less specific story. Many children's books have plots that elicit emotional responses from the characters, so choose a story that will be entertaining for your child and that incorporates a specific emotion you want to demonstrate. Encourage your child to ask questions and contribute opinions both during and after the reading.
Playing games can help your child practice the new vocabulary in an entertaining, interactive manner. For instance, have a scavenger hunt whose clues focus on emotions and feelings. Give your child verbal clues to find objects that represent emotional concepts you've discussed, and then have him search for these items around the house. Or simply sit your child down at the table and give him a pair of safety scissors and an old magazine; give him a clue for an emotion, and then have him scour the pages to find an appropriate example.