Ways to teach Empathy to the little ones

Parents do their best to provide their little ones with high-quality education. From encouraging them to explore extracurricular activities to shaping their inborn talents, they leave no stone unturned to make them an all-rounder from early childhood. They should exhibit the same excitement for nurturing them to grow into kind human beings, which starts with teaching empathy from a young age. 

Empathy is not just a personality trait but a valuable skill that will help them in multiple aspects of life. There should be a great emphasis on developing this underrated life skill from early childhood. Kids should know the power of their actions and words. The best play school in Gurgaon believes in nurturing kids with empathy and other social skills so they can build friendships and connections with their peers at the school.

Importance of empathy in early childhood

• Empathy helps your little one connect with others and make valuable connections. 
• It teaches them to be more accepting of other people’s perspectives. 
• It enhances self-awareness, and they learn to understand their feelings and communicate them more clearly.

You can help your little one develop this crucial skill with love and support. Parents play a very important role in developing empathy in children. A study on “Parental influences on children’s empathic development” in Developmental Review, 2010, explores the role of parenting in shaping children’s empathic abilities. It highlights the importance of parental warmth, responsiveness, and modelling of empathic behaviour. Here are some creative ways that indicate how to teach empathy to toddlers.

Best methods to encourage empathy in kids

• Journaling

Journaling is a great way for kids to learn and get clarity about their own emotions. To develop empathy and understand other people’s emotions, it is important to understand your own first. By writing down or drawing their emotions out, kids can learn how they feel about a situation. The best play school in Gurgaon promotes giving kids different journaling prompts for birthdays, new year, a fight they had with their friends, etc, to learn about how they are thinking and feeling about it. This will give you a direction on teaching empathy to young children. 

• Stories and movies

Kids love stories and movies, so how about you use them to teach them about feelings and emotions? Stories and movies are woven with different kinds of emotions. There are protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters, each one carries a different emotion with them. You can tell them stories and ask how each character would be feeling to see how effectively they are identifying the emotions of the characters. This teaches them to see the same in real life when they interact with their peers at school. You can also read stories about the morals of being kind and helpful.

• Emotional wheel 

This is an interesting activity of creating an emotional wheel with different emotions written on it, you can go in as much depth as you want. Hang it in your home and ask your little one to identify their feelings and go into the cause of it. Such interactive activities to teach empathy help spark a conversation about what’s bothering them and help them find a way out. Sometimes, the individual is not aware of what’s going on in their heart and head. This is also a way to gain awareness of their own emotions, share them with close ones, and find a solution together. 

• Kindness to animals

People are not always vocal about their emotions. Sometimes, you just have to understand through non-verbal communication. Innocent animals fit here as the perfect example. You have to understand what they want to convey through their eyes and body language. Teach your little one to be kind to animals, this will develop feelings of empathy for them. Encourage them to take the pet dog out for a walk, play with them, feed stray animals, etc. This is one of the best ways to build kindness in kids and develop them into empathetic individuals.

• Rewards and positive reinforcement

The best way to encourage good behaviour is by rewarding it. This will make them enjoy the process. Learning empathy shouldn’t be boring but fun. You can appreciate them with your words or offer a treat for their good behaviour. Rewards are a great motivation for the little ones, they will leave no chance to be kind and empathetic with others.

• Play EmotionaI Spy

Emotions are something that cannot be learned in theory. You need to teach your little one the practical applications. They must be able to identify the genuine emotions of people in real-life situations. To see how much they can understand and connect with the emotions of people. Take them out for a stroll in the park and play the ‘I Spy’ game together where you both observe people and spot their emotions like I spot ‘happiness’, I spot ‘kindness’, etc. This will strengthen their empathetic muscles and help you understand how much they can identify emotions. 

Empathy is a skill that helps your little one in more ways than you can imagine. Beansprouts, the best play school in Gurgaon incorporate emotional intelligence activities for preschoolers in their curriculum to build empathy in kids from their early years of education. They emphasise social skills development for preschoolers so that they can grow holistically. Support your little ones by inculcating the right skills in them.