3 Ways to Teach Empathy to Your Preschooler

Hey Parents,
Teaching empathy is harder than it seems. Studies actually call empathy a skill and, as you may know already, it comes more easily to some than others. So what exactly is empathy? Empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." My favorite explanation is given by the one and only Brene Brown- Check it out below..

So now that we've defined what empathy is, we can start to practice it. 

Because if there's one thing I know about having children, it's that it's nearly impossible to teach something well if you don't practice it yourself. Which leads me to my first point.

1. Model it - Yikes this is a challenging one! Being mindful that our children are watching most everything we do is important. They're watching you treat your waitress with kindness or ignoring your postal worker. They're learning from you picking up the trash outside the restaurant or leaving things for someone else to pick up. They're taking a mental note of the time your friend came over because she needed someone to talk to or the way you thoughtfully asked about their friend who had a hard time at school drop off.  Most importantly though, they're learning from you as you take the time to listen and validate their feelings. 
2. Give them opportunity -  Consider sponsoring a child or signing up for an outreach event at your church with your child. Part of being empathetic is learning and experiencing from those outside of your normal circle. Connection is a huge part of empathy but I believe we'll struggle to connect with others if we don't learn to listen from those who are different than us. 
3. Play- Play is an opportunity! Children learn and process so much through play.  Look for ways to talk about empathy while you play. For example " Oh no, the bear is hurt! Let's stop and make sure he's okay before we go." 

Raising emotionally intelligent children is no easy feat and I know that preschooler's can be pretty self centered. However I also know that it all starts in these early years. We're laying the foundation now for our children to be life long learners and leaders. Empathy is a part of that.

We're in this together,

Miss Kat