This initial emotional connection with your child shows them that you’re on their side, not against them.Ģ. Recognition: Take a moment to recognize what your child is feeling. Follow these three steps when interacting with your children to practice empathy:ġ. In order to teach empathy, you must first be empathetic with your children. Not only does this help children control their own emotions more effectively, it also assists in creating and maintaining healthy relationships.Įmpathy is an emotional and social skill that children should begin practicing as early as possible, so parents should begin teaching it from day one.
Practicing empathy helps children become more aware of their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Being empathetic with your children also helps them learn to love and trust you more deeply, allowing for better communication.įor children, the benefits of empathy will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Having empathy can help to maintain an emotionally positive environment in the household, which keeps the family attitude positive and makes development easier for children. The ability to reciprocate feelings is an important social and emotional skill for everyone to learn.įor parents, empathy can be a highly effective child development tool. Let’s look at the importance of, and how we can teach our children, empathy. It can be considered one of the most important characteristics of social behavior and is something that should be taught early on in childhood. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.