5 year old unable to articulate feelings - is this normal?

[lifeinthemidlands]

My DD is 5 and is very chatty, but she never seems to be able to articulate worries or emotions. She can identify them in book characters etc. but if something is making her anxious she seems unable to express it. In fact she pretty much never explain why something's making her happy / sad / angry etc. I try and give her plenty of opportunities to talk about things (I feel somethings worrying her at school at the moment but can't get to the bottom of it) and her speech and vocab are excellent, but I never manage to get her to explain her feelings. Is this normal? Any ideas of how to approach it?

Any ideas?

I think 50% of the adults I know can't do this tbh, if not more

Good point fox! - However, I always assumed that was leant behaviour a bit (particularly with men).I just supposed that if offered the space small children would be able to.

I have one who is very good at this and one who is terrible.

The one who is terrible, I must admit, I have actually tried to help him (only because he had anger and temper issues as a result of not being able to express himself!).

The fact that she can identify in pictures is really important.

Tbh, I'm not sure how many 5 year olds can do this. I stepped in and helped my dc when he was 8 but as I said, he was having frustration issues frm not being able to properly identify how he was feeling.

Surely if she can identify it in others, she's probably only a step or so away at identifying it in herself?

ps when researching our issues, we were recommended a book called Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child which you may find interesting if you want to look into this issue.

I am not an expert but I am a teacher and I don't think its that unusual to not be able to express your emotions clearly at age 5.
You could use soft toys / puppets to act out little scenarios e.g. teddy has taken dolly's biscuit, how does she feel, what should she do etc. It seems a bit twee I know but maybe it would help.
I'm sure your dd knows that you love her and that you will be there for her whatever.

Thanks for the very helpful suggestions. Will have a look at the book and try a bit of roleplay with her.

The official name for it is "alexithymia", I think.

I would say this is nothing to be worried about at five. My little cousin once got so angry that she just "went blue" and wouldn't talk for an hour, completely silent like a little ghost, she couldn't articulate her feelings. Otherwise she's very social, friendly, amazingly intuitive for her age. They just don't have the sophisticated vocabulary yet i.e. it doesn't extend much beyond sad/happy, and they know they feel something different, so can't really explain beyond showing frustration- crying, shouting etc (I'm sure they know the effect of it and are partly relieved by it because it gets the same reaction they think they would get if the adult knew exactly what they were thinking).
I know this because I have major problems with this kind of thing (goes with the Aspie territory), and since I am a pretty long way off five, it's not so normal anymore! But with young kids, totally normal.