It is common for many parents to wonder what empathy is for children and how they can teach it to them. The school for parents integrates both playful teaching practices at home and emotional and social learning.
Empathy at school is important for children to develop other values such as respect and solidarity with their peers. For this reason, this topic is essential to foster the social skills of students.
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What is Empathy for Children (as a concept)?
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the place of the other person, to recognize their feelings and their motivations. The value of empathy is key to education, it allows understanding the conditions of the child and adapting the teaching process. To teach it to children, it is important to highlight that each person has different emotions and perspectives before the same event.
Action is also part of this process, so thinking of ways to help the other person is a way of practicing empathy.
What does Empathy teach us?
Developing this ability teaches us that each person has their own perspective, based on their beliefs or experiences.
Empathy in children focuses on not judging others, but on establishing lasting bonds over time. In this way, they will have the ability to identify how other people feel and subtly express support or comfort.
The Importance of Empathy for Children
Many parents wonder how to teach children empathy and its importance for social relationships. Instilling this value from home is essential to resolve school conflicts peacefully and understand the position of classmates.
Another advantage of empathy is the ability to listen and understand the other person through dialogue. In short, patience is also part of this value as part of the process to understand the experiences and expectations of others.
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What Are the Types of Empathy?
The types of empathy imply three different levels of understanding, each one occurs in a linear and consecutive way within the cognitive-affective process These types of empathy are:
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Cognitive Empathy
- Cognitive empathy is the first level in the process of empathizing with a person
- It is done through the identification of the words and gestures used by the other person to communicate
- During this interaction, the brain encodes through certain inferences the emotional and mental state of the interlocutor
- In this step, an overview of what the other person thinks or feels is articulated, but without including personal implications.
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Emotional Empathy
- Emotional empathy requires that the person captures the cognitive traits, this second level integrates the emotional dimensions
- This form of empathy allows us to feel sensitive to the other person’s situation
- This response of the nervous system allows us to respond to the happiness or sadness of others.
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Compassionate Empathy
- Compassionate empathy goes beyond understanding and sharing the feelings of a partner or friend
- At this level, people make the decision to help or collaborate in an effective way to solve a situation.
In conclusion, all forms of empathy are essential to generate well-being in the people around us.
What Are the Best Ways to Create Empathy for Children?
There are several activities to create empathy in children. Most of them are easy to apply at home or in the classroom. For example, there are the following ones:
The Box of Feelings
- This game consists of writing negative feelings or problems that you have on a piece of paper
- Then each participant chooses a piece of paper at random and offers a few words to encourage the other person.
Put Yourself in my Shoes
- This psychological comparison consists of sitting the children in a circle and taking off their shoes
- Each child will put their shoe on the partner on the right, so each participant must respond as the owner of the shoe they own.
Mime of Emotions (Game)
- For this game, each participant must say a word related to an emotion
- The other person will mimic or gesture to represent said word, this is an excellent option to work on emotions in class or at home
- Games to teach empathy to children is the best way to learn while having fun and sharing with their friends.
Conclusion
After knowing the characteristics of empathy, parents and representatives will know how to develop this social skill in children. Through acquiring this data, all the educational lessons on the platform are based on meaningful learning through play.
Help your children to enhance their abilities to show empathy towards others, so they can have lasting relationships.
