Authors emphasise emotional intelligence power via storytelling

Sharjah 24

03-05-2025

Moderated by creative artist and lawyer Layla Mohammed, the session had Indian author Varun Duggirala, Kuwaiti author Sara Al Zhafiri Kuwait and Emirati educator Maya Al Hawaari emphasising the need for self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation in children and how parents can enable and guide their children in building resilience and forming meaningful relationships.
Varun Duggirala, a children's author, podcaster and entrepreneur, said learning to regulate emotions and developing social skills as a child was important. The author of
Small Body, Big Feelings
added that today's children manage anger issues a lot better than their parents' generations. The Indian author pointed out that learning good traffic manners is one way of managing the social world, which in a child's case includes the playground, school and family environment. He felt that 'children gravitate more to screens only when they don't have enough social interactions'.
Sara Al Zhafiri, a children's author from Kuwait who organises philosophy workshops for children and adults in the GCC region, emotional intelligence was important for humans to understand themselves. 'Since my childhood, I was always a questioning child. I love to engage children and I have used my Philosophy Club to promote emotional intelligence in children through drawing, painting and also writing. The discussions with children help to understand their feelings.'
Al Zhafiri, who has written numerous books for children in Arabic including
What Shape is my Heart?
, and 'translated into English by her best friend', stated that opening a channel of communication between child and parents was important to reduce their fears and anxieties, because these challenges exist all over the world.
Emirati educator and researcher Maya Al Hawaari, noted that 'emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and motivate yourself'. She said that taking care of a special needs child and handling depression herself meant that she had to take care of herself better for the sake of her young children and not the way her parents raised her.
'We are their mirrors, children feed off us, so we as parents need to be role models and portray and reflect emotional intelligence,' she observed. She added that emotional intelligence is an umbrella to understand ourselves, which humans have in a capacity different from animals and plants.
Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), the 16th edition of SCRF which has the theme 'Dive into Books' will conclude on May 4.