Developing Empathy

Empathy is an important social-emotional skill for preschoolers to develop. All through their lives, they will need to be able to see the world from other people’s perspective. Here are some strategies to help preschoolers develop emphatic behavior:

• Encourage your child to develop an emotional vocabulary. Use books, picture flashcards and real-life situations to talk about different emotions.
• Empathy develops parallel with self-awareness. As a child becomes more in tune with his or her own emotions and learns to express them, he or she would also become more aware of others’ feelings.
• Praise any effort that shows that your kids are concerned about how other people are feeling. If your kids are cradling a teddy bear, say: ‘Wow, you take care of your bear so well. See how happy he looks.’
• When your child sees that another child is unhappy, ask questions such as, ‘Why do you think Johnny is so sad?’ to help your child think about the other person’s emotions more.
• Be honest about your own emotions when appropriate. When you cry or when you are feeling sad, you can say, ‘I am sad because today has been a year since Aunt May died. I miss her.’
• Use a camera to capture your children’s faces as they experience different emotions. Show these to them on a screen or make some prints and discuss how they were feeling at the time each photograph was taken.
• Use picture books to model emphatic behavior and help your kids see the world from a different perspective.
• During this stage, your child also needs to learn that not all reactions to other people’s misfortunes are appropriate. “That’s Not Funny” by Jeanne Willis demonstrates this lesson in a hilarious way.
• Teaching basic manners like saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ lays a foundation for courteous behavior that encourages the development of empathy.