Importance Of Empathy In Children

1946 Words4 Pages

Ghana Irfan Irfan 1 Newnham EAD 204 Empathy is a really important aspect in a child’s life, as it helps them understand their emotions, increases prosocial behavior, as well as helps preschoolers understand others emotions while interacting with their peers. Facial expressions are another part of child’s understanding of what’s going on with another person’s emotions. An encouragement for the child during preschool years is crucial in order for the child to learn and regulate certain behaviors. However, during the preschool years children are able to communicate a limited amount of emotions they are feeling through the help of the teachers, and by interacting with their peers (Prosocial Behavior, 2002) As the child is growing they will interact more with peers, which will lead them to understand their interests and abilities. They are able to communicate their likes and dislikes during the preschool stage. During the early years many theorists had suggested that young children are too egocentric, and cannot understand or perform empathy (Bierhoff, 2002). However, recent studies have clearly stated that young children are capable of displaying many different types of behaviors, which show empathy towards others, and motivates them to have a prosocial behavior. However, it is a challenge for preschoolers to communicate while showing empathy, as they have limited amount of language they can use. A very common way of knowing whether a preschooler is showing empathy is by observing their reaction to another child’s stress (Prosocial Behavior, 2002). ... ... middle of paper ... .... So this will help them take the right actions in Irfan 8 different situations. As well, it is important for children to see all types of perspectives as it will help them understand how to behave, and make the choices they would like to make. It is important however for children to have many different experiences, in order to learn about themselves. Also, the more children will interact with their peers, the easier it will be for them to empathize with others. An encouragement should always be provided to the children in order to learn more about themselves and others.

Open Document