Parent tip
Start before you overthink it. No-prep activities work best when you begin while the moment is still recoverable.
Mirror Feelings Faces
Pull happy, sad, and surprised faces in a mirror together — naming emotions your child can see on their own face.
Activity details
Instructions
Tiny Steps
- Sit with your child in front of a large mirror — bathroom mirrors, wardrobe mirrors, or a propped-up wall mirror all work.
- Start with a big smile and say 'Look! I'm making a happy face. Can you see my happy face in the mirror?'
- Point to your child's reflection: 'Now you try — show me your happy face!' Celebrate whatever they produce.
- Move to a sad face: pull your mouth down, droop your eyes. Say 'Oh no, this is my sad face. Do I look sad?'
- Try surprised: eyes wide, mouth open. 'Woah! I'm surprised! Can you make a surprised face?'
- Name the feeling each time and point to the specific feature: 'See how my eyebrows go up when I'm surprised?'
- Play a guessing game: make a face without naming it and ask 'What am I feeling? Can you tell from my face?'
- End by making the silliest face you can together and laughing at your reflections — always finish with joy.
What success looks like
A few quiet minutes together without pressure. If your child relaxes even slightly, that’s self-regulation building.
Sitting with your child in front of a mirror and making exaggerated facial expressions gives them a powerful tool for emotional learning. They can see their own face change as they try to match yours, creating a direct visual link between a feeling and its expression. This is especially valuable for children who find it harder to read social cues — the mirror makes the invisible visible, and doing it together turns emotion recognition into a shared, joyful game rather than an instruction.
Why it helps
The Foundation Years programme emphasises that children need opportunities to learn the words to identify and name their emotions, which helps them communicate feelings more effectively and reduces frustration. Facial emotion recognition is a core social-cognitive skill that develops through repeated exposure and practise. Children on the autism spectrum or with social communication differences often benefit from explicit, playful teaching of facial expressions. The mirror provides immediate visual feedback, which strengthens the link between proprioceptive awareness (how the face feels) and visual recognition (how the face looks). This dual-channel learning accelerates emotional vocabulary development. NHS early years guidance recognises that emotional development is just as important as physical or cognitive milestones, and it grows best through warm, consistent interactions.
Variations
- Use a stuffed animal and show it to the mirror too — 'What face is teddy making? Is teddy happy or sad?'
- Draw simple feeling faces on paper plates and hold them up next to your real face for comparison.
- Take photos of each face you make and create a little 'feelings album' on your phone to look at later.
Safety tips
- Ensure the mirror is securely mounted or propped — a falling mirror is a serious hazard for small children.
- If using a handheld mirror, choose a shatterproof one designed for children.
- Watch your child's emotional state — if practising 'sad' or 'scared' faces causes genuine distress, move quickly to a happy or silly face.
