Strategies That Teach and Build Empathy in Children
Students learn to feel and show empathy over time. Students around the age of eight or nine begin to develop the cognitive skills necessary to understand the concept of empathy. However, even five year olds are concerned about being treated well, and they want others to be treated well too. Empathy is skill students need extra help to develop. Adults can teach children to recognize and show empathy in situations throughout each day. A student who shows empathy is able to understand and appreciate the thoughts, feelings and experiences of someone else.
When students are learning and developing empathy, there are specific things you can say and activities you can do to help them enhance this skill. Here are several ways to develop empathy in your student:
Show empathy to your student when they are upset
Being sensitive to how your student feels can help them understand what it’s like for other people when someone shows empathy.
Model Empathy in The Moment
When your students show a lack of empathy in a social situation, model empathy for them. While one intervention may be to correct your student in the moment, demonstrating empathy on the spot can be a powerful learning tool. Demonstrate what empathy would look like in that moment and invite your student to join in with you.
Praise Empathetic Behavior
When your child performs an act of kindness, tell him what they did right while being specific as possible. “You were very generous to share your pretzels with that other child. I saw them smiling and I knew they were happy.
Raise Awareness of Nonverbal Cues
Try looking at pictures or watching TV shows on mute. You can help your student identify and label the emotions of the people they see. This is good practice for recognizing and identifying signs of different emotions in real life.
Be Ready to Change Tactics Slightly
If the “How would you feel….” strategy isn’t working, move the spotlight to yourself. Talking about how you felt can be a subtle, helpful change. It helps your student focus on another person’s feelings.
Use Role Play
Developing empathy shouldn’t be a chore for your student, there are ways to make developing a new skill fun. You can sit on a bench at the playground or at a shopping area. Try to guess the mood of people who walk by and explain what cues made you think a person was feeling happy, sad or mad. This type of game helps your student tune in to how expressions, body language, and tone of voice can explain how someone is feeling. Additionally, have your student put themself in the other person’s shoes and role play the situation.
