In short, emotionally intelligent individuals are able to recognize, express, understand, control, and ultimately learn from their feelings. In newborns, the expression of emotions occurs naturally: babies cry to show pain, hunger, tiredness and frustration. As a child grows, adults and caregivers have an immense responsibility to model and teach recognition, understanding, and control of emotions. Children are fierce imitators who constantly observe and emulate the actions of those around them. Parents and early childhood teachers must not only model appropriate expressions of emotions, but also allow different techniques for children to express their feelings of joy, fear, anger, and sadness (among many others). More importantly, it is critical that schools and communities offer students ways to label and analyze the emotions they feel. Naming the emotion allows people to talk about how they feel, why they feel that way, and most importantly, what they can do to improve their emotional state. For some students, “counting to ten” may be all that is needed to begin this process. Others will need more support from social workers or school psychologists. Parents and teachers have an obligation to provide safe, open spaces for children to process emotions in productive and positive ways. Even negative emotions can be beneficial to a child's development, as long as he or she is given the mental and social tools to understand and learn from emotions and their consequences..