Empathy is described as the ability to understand and share the feelings of other people, which is what the majority of people develop through life, as they grow up. No matter what you may or may not think, kids can be empathetic from an early age, too. So, if you want to know how to teach your child empathy, all you have to do is to keep on reading. Here are three useful tips on how to make that happen, so check them out and get down to business!
Label the feelings in the first place
In case you weren’t aware of it, the fact is that your child will be able to understand and manage their feelings with more success if they learn to recognize them in the first place. This is exactly why you should label particular feelings and mention them as often as possible, in accordance with situations in which your kid behaves in a certain way. When they realize that you’ve noticed their behavior, they’ll also learn to recognize and value their own feelings, which is a huge step forward your child has to take. You can come up with a ‘feeling of the day’ game, too, by putting up a bulletin board with pictures of people experiencing basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger, and talk with your child about times when they felt the same way. When they learn those, you can continue with more complicated emotions such as jealousy, nervousness, frustration, and similar ones.
Praise empathetic behavior
When your little one performs an act of kindness, it’s essential to praise their empathetic behavior and emphasize the importance of behaving in a particular way. Of course, we should also mention that you should be as specific as possible, so that your kid understands what they did and how it affected other kids or people. For example, if your daughter gladly shared her sandwich with her friend in school, you should say that it was really generous to share it because it made the other girl very happy. On the other hand, donating money to charities has always been a great way to teach your kids empathy, which is why people from all across the world do it with their little ones these days. If that’s what you want, you can encourage your kid to donate money to children’s charity in Australia. This is a great way to teach your child to be more empathetic and responsible with money at the same time.
Encourage your child to talk about their feelings and do the same, too
Allowing and motivating your child to talk about their feelings is one of the best ways to show them that you care about how they feel, so always listen intently to what they have to say, without exceptions. This is also crucial even if your kid wants to tell a story about someone else, so listen to the story from their point of view before offering your own. When your little one can’t define the feeling on their own, you should be there to help them out. Needless to say, sharing your feelings with your child is also of the utmost importance, so make sure to tell them how you feel about particular situations. Your kid will learn that adults have feelings, too, as well as that these are a normal part of life. That can teach them to cope with those emotions throughout life, which is an essential part of growing up your child should experience sooner rather than later.
As you can see, there are a lot of great ways to teach your child empathy, and these three are undoubtedly the best ones out there. All you have to do is to stick to our tips and guidelines if that’s one of your top priorities and you’ll make that happen, without a shadow of a doubt!