Lessons In Nurturing Empathy As Well As Caring In Young Toddlers
In the following article we are going to discuss and important topic that is “Lessons in Nurturing Empathy and Caring in Young Toddlers” and will discuss regarding it thoroughly within the article:
Empathy is nothing but the ability to actually understand and even share the feelings as well as viewpoints of others. It is actually the widely known fundamental 21st century proficiency. It can even be called the corner stone of universal citizenship. We learn about other people and about world events, but without empathy, we don’t necessarily care what’s happening and the same goes for the children as without feelings for others, they won’t be able to empathize.
The feeling of empathy cannot actually be developed overnight or can be taught when we attain adulthood, on the contrary it really needs to be developed from a very young age. Consequently the pioneers of early childhood programme such as illustrious Maria Montessori has included SEL (Socio-emotional learning) as one of the pillars of the ECE (Early Childhood Education).
There are three major social-emotional and cognitive skills that come together to create the ability to empathize.
These are :
- Self-Consciousness –
The ability to identify and label one’s own feelings and motivations.
- Perspective-Taking –
The ability to actually see things from someone else’s point of view.
- An Understanding of Origin-and-Consequence –
How one’s own actions might impact others.
A few Recommended Ways To Actually Teach Empathy To The Toddlers’ Are:
- Label the Feeling
- Praise Empathetic Behaviour
- Encourage Pre-schooler to speak about his Feelings and Yours
- Teach Verbal Cues
- Teach Non-Verbal Cues
- Teach Basic Rules of Politeness
- Don’t Use Anger to Control the Child
- Set an Example
- Help kids develop a moral identity
- Help Kids Find their Inner Hero
- Encourage Empathy Through Stories
- Validate the Child’s Difficult Emotions
- Use Pretend Play
- Milestones in Empathy in the Toddler are often Celebrated when he :
- Establishes a Secure, Strong, Loving Relationship with you
- Begins to use Social Referencing
- Develops a Theory of Mind i.e. his own Understanding of Situations
- Recognizes One’s Self as an Individual Different from his Parents
When a toddler grows a little older, he still needs to acquire Social Emotional learning that can actually be defined as “social and emotional competence” i.e. “the ability to actually understand, express as well as manage the social and also emotional aspects of one’s life in ways that further enable the successful management of life tasks such as forming relationships, learning, solving everyday problems as well as adapting to the complex demands of growth and even development.”
The perspective changes when the kid becomes a little older but the intent and purpose of inculcating empathy remains the same. Thus empathy in other words is just an ability to imagine how some other person is feeling in a particular situation and respond with care. This is a really complex skill to develop so when a child is actually able to empathize with another person it basically suggests that the kid :
- Understands that he is his own person
- Understands that other people can have different thoughts as well as feelings than he has
- Recognizes the common feelings as happiness, anger, suprise, sadness, disappointment and several such feelings
- Is able to look at a specific situation and imagine how he might feel in this moment if he had been in the other person’s place.
- Can imagine what sort of response might actually be appropriate or comforting in that particular or specific situation
With consistent scaffolding from teachers, young kids can begin to actually internalize these behaviours and this further makes them more independent. Furthermore, this new found independence then actually lays foundation of empathy. It should be remembered that the young students actually need continued guidance as well as opportunities for practicing empathy and care as they grow their cognitive as well as social skills and become more progressive and even pronounced. Our Pre-school, one of the best schools in Noida and Indirapuram has integrated such activities as a part of their customized curriculum to nurture in the pre-schoolers lessons of empathy in order to develop them into sensitive as well as caring adults.
