Please Touch Museum Opening New Exhibit Helping Children Get In Touch With Feelings
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new exhibit opening this weekend at the Please Touch Museum will teach kids emotional intelligence while helping them get in touch with their feelings. Studies have shown children are becoming more isolated mainly because of technology and with that comes increasing rates of depression.
Feelings and emotions are complicated for kids, but this new exhibit aims to change that
Express yourself and get added to a giant mosaic of faces to be part of the global experience.
That is just one of the interactive stations at the Please Touch Museum's new XOXO exhibit about love and forgiveness.
"To really learn about the important parts of what it means to be emotionally connected to yourself, to your family, to your community," Please Touch Museum's President Patricia Wellenbach said.
Wellenbach also says that understanding and expressing feelings can be difficult for kids but here, they get to practice.
One of the features of the exhibit demonstrates the power of voice with different tones and inflections are reflected on a screen.
The visualization of the voice "is a remarkable teaching tool to really understand how the change of tone," Wellenbach said.
Here, bad feelings that are written or drawn get shredded then are gathered into a jar and put on a wall. On a seesaw, there are lessons of balance -- the give and take of life.
"We live in a complicated world. Kids at the youngest ages they get frustrated, they get mad, they get happy and it's OK to have all of those emotions and experiences and it's important to learn how to deal with those within your own self and with others," Wellenbach said.
The exhibit is based on Fred Rogers' concept that everyone longs to be loved but life is complicated
"Just by holding hands you can change the world," Wellenbach said.
At this station, people hold hands to illuminate a message about improving the world and you can be solo too.
"If you're connected to yourself and understand your own feelings then you can share those feelings with other people," Wellenbach said.
Kids can make tokens of love to give as gifts and leave messages of love and forgiveness at the response wall.
All of these are important life lessons about emotional health and learning to live together
The exhibit is for children up to the age of 9. They have to go with an adult and it's designed to also help with interaction and community between kids and grownups.
