Empathy For The Development Of Children

Throughout the different stages of life, humans go through a whirlwind of emotions and traumas that affect how they develop. During the most primitive years of our lives, it is important for the caretaker of the child to teach them how to learn basic life skills such as socializing, empathy, kindness, and speaking. While there are a plethora of other tasks needed to succeed in society, I tend to think that being able to show empathy is one the most important traits a person can have. When a child is going through a sensitive stage, it is important to surround them with words of encouragement and love, otherwise they might end up troubled later on in life. Thousands of kids grow up in troubled households, but not all of them end up sad and miserable

In Western culture, it is important for a baby to be as independent as physically possible. We tend to celebrate certain milestones such as crawling, walking, driving, and being able to tie your own shoes. All of these milestones plus many more demonstrate just how much we value independence. Because we put so much focus on independence, we tend to lose sight of other traits that are considered significantly more important in other cultures. Since we rely so much on self sufficiency, some children end up without the nurture they need to succeed in different relationships throughout their lives. While I was growing up, I was one of those kids that unfortunately did not get the type of nurture and love most people are blessed to grow up with. Both of my parents were workaholics and self-centered which affected the way I viewed the world. Luckily, I was a resilient kid and grew up to be nothing like my parents. Though I’m still a little too independent at times, I have learned how to rely on people, even though it is still hard for me to do so. Plasticity played a huge role during my development. Instead of becoming a self-centered person full of hate and sadness, I grew into a strong, empathetic person with a passion for helping people. Though some people will grow up to be spiteful and full

I didn’t wake up one day to the person I am now, it took years of therapy and different medications and I’m still not done growing into the person I want to be. It takes a lot of drive and perseverance for plasticity to work, but it is definitely possible. I see plasticity almost everyday, but there is one moment in particular that stands out to me the most. During my freshman year, I the entire school year volunteering at a high school for teen moms. I worked in the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) where I spent my time helping out with the infants and toddlers. There was one little boy who would scream and cry unless he was being held. He was 8 months old, and while everyone else around him was trying to crawl, he would just sit and bawl alone with some toys. An instinct we tend to have is to run over the crying child and coddle them, but in this case we couldn’t do that. In order to teach him that being alone and independent is okay, we just let him cry until he finally stopped. While it was agonizing to do because everyone just wanted him to be quiet, we knew that he would have a hard time later in life if we went to go hold him. Being able to take a step back and observe the situation at hand gave me a new perspective on plasticity and helped me realize that sometimes the caretakers have to be the ones willing to do the work. Week after week I was able to watch become