Possible to Teach Kids Empathy?
Depending on the age of your child, trying to teach empathy might not yet be an option. Until children grow past the “me” stage you probably won’t have much luck.
Babies think the world revolves around them and by two it’s still a challenge to convince them to share anything even if they’re not using it.
What I’m wondering though is what we as adults do to discourage this from going on any longer than it should because there are still adults that don’t consider others. Also is part of it genetic?
I have two children here for example that are like night and day but one has always been more sensitive to others feelings. It’s not necessarily anything I did or didn’t teach them. One was born more empathetic.
Model Behavior
We can teach manners and kind and appropriate behaviors which will in theory improve our children’s behavior and chance for future success. Modeling the behavior still does not guarantee the feelings will come. There’s still a much better chance they will be empathetic if you don’t model mean and selfish behaviors.
I was interested in what other people had to say about it and found a wonderful article by Norma Schmidt called “5 Easy Ways to Teach Your Kids Empathy“. Besides modeling behavior she suggests trying to get children to describe their feelings. It makes sense because you can hardly know how someone else is feeling if you’re not aware of your own feelings.
I think that if a parent shows an interest in what a child thinks or feels, it shows that they love them. This increases the chances of them being able to love someone else. So the best way to teach empathy is to show them love. What are ways you show love and/or teach empathy?
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