What is emotional literacy?
There are five main aspects of emotional intelligence which, when developed, lead to children becoming emotionally literate. These are identified by Daniel Goleman in his book 'Emotional Intelligence'.

They are:

Knowing their emotions
The first stage is self-awareness - recognising a feeling as it happens. Children eventually reach the stage where they can be aware of an emotion rather than being overwhelmed by it. However they do not learn this over night!