Developing empathy in children helps them to accept and value differences in each other and to appreciate strengths in their peers. Empathy is the ability to recognize and feel the emotions of another person (i.e., to put oneself into another’s shoes.)

Teaching empathy helps to create kind and compassionate children who are less likely to hurt others or to become bullies.

In the past, it was believed that empathy was an inherent skill and would develop in children naturally. But many professionals in child development now feel that empathy is a learned skill and that as Early Interventionists, we need to begin teaching children empathy in their formative years. We can help children to build the foundation they need to become caring and cooperative individuals who say “no” to bullying at home, in school and in their day care programs.

As a teacher, modelling empathy through your interactions with children and their parents is the beginning of the learning process for the children in your classroom. There are also a variety of activities that can be implemented to develop empathy in your program, such as:

• Incorporating cooperative games / activities into your curriculum which will promote the development of empathy. Activities can be used during both outdoor and indoor play. Include activities throughout the day as well as at circle time.
• Using circle games, such as We are Special Chant, The Spider Web Game, The Ball Name Game, Name Exchange, One Potato, Two Potato, Blindfold Walk, Draw a Shape. Other activities include: Say Something Nice about your Neighbour Game (the teacher gives each child the name of a peer. Then, each child has to say something nice about the peer in circle time. The teacher picks the peers so that everyone is included), As a group create graphs about your class (e.g., eye colour, hair colour, what you like, height, etc.) The teacher facilitates a discussion (using the graphs) about the children’s similarities (e.g., We all have eyes. We all eat food. We all grow., etc.)
• Incorporating empathy activities into informal classroom play. An example would be building a puzzle together. Each child is given a piece of an interlocking puzzle with a number or a letter on the back. As a group, the children have to assemble the puzzle, working together by putting the numbers or letters in sequence to complete the puzzle. Another activity is building a structure together. The group is asked by the teacher to build a structure with blocks. Each child is given a block and the group works together to build the structure. It is important that teachers be involved in these activities and model cooperative, nurturing interactions.
• Including games and stories to build empathy in your classroom. Games can include The Empathy Fishing Game, Emotions Lotto games and stories, including social stories, books and stories that can be created by yourselves and the children in your classroom.
• Scripting role plays using puppets (or the children themselves) will help children to develop an understanding of different situations that they and their peers might face Teachers can begin by giving scenarios and then students can create their own.

Activities that focus on developing an appreciation of each other’s similarities and differences help children to begin to value and understand each other. Some of these activities include Face Puzzles. Using magazine faces, have children draw faces and use the children’s photographs to create face puzzles. Have each child do one face, whether their own or that of a peer. As a group, everyone works to put the face puzzle together. The teacher facilitates a discussion about differences in each face and the underlying similarities; Another activity is Get To Know Your Friends Bingo. Each child has a bingo card with a variety of different squares. Examples of the squares can be: likes pizza, likes to dance, likes hockey, etc. When the bingo leader picks a card, all the children who feel they can relate to the square put their hands up. For example, eight children like to do puzzles and the children with that square on their bingo card put the number 8 on the card. The game is over when all children have filled their cards. During the game and after, discuss how many children felt they belonged to which squares and why. Another activity is My Family Tree. Have each child do a family tree. At circle time have each child discuss their family tree and what their family likes to eat, do for fun, etc. Discuss the differences and similarities between families and also discuss the fact that the world is one big family. During this discussion talk about the things we all have in common in the world (e.g., We need to eat, drink, sleep, have shelter, etc.) and the differences between us.

As a group, have children bring in a favourite food from their family/community. Discuss the differences/similarities between the foods. For example, many of us eat bread but the breads might have different spices, etc.

Worksheets and cut and paste activities about similarities and differences such as the Friendship Tree (each child creates a tree with all the names of classmates on leaves and writes one nice thing about each classmate on his/her leaf) can also build children’s feelings of empathy and an appreciation of each other.