Empathy is greatly misunderstood quality, especially for children with special needs, so in today's post I will offer some definition, insights and resources for parents & educators.
Empathy has a several definitions which encompasses a variety of nuances: caring for other people and having a desire to help them, to experiencing emotions that match another person's emotions; to knowing what another person is thinking or feeling, to blurring that divider line between one's self and others.
In general, empathy has two major aspects or categories:
- Cognitive Empathy: (Also Known as Theory of Mind) refers to the drive to identify another's mental states.
- Emotional (Affective) Empathy: pertains to being affected by another's emotional state & the desire to respond with an appropriate emotion as well as our general ability to empathize emotionally
In either case, empathy builds on our capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another person and is a quality that is well worth developing in ourselves as well as in our children. By the age of two, children are just beginning to learn empathy but it does not start to really emerge until about age 4. Then, between ages 7-12 children seem to be naturally empathetic with people who are experiencing pain.
Empathic responses are usually not typical in people with autism, and for those with particular personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder, psychopathy, narcissistic personality disorder, and schizoid personality disorder, in addition to people with conduct disorder or bipolar disorder, and those experiencing depersonalization. (The subject of empathy on the autism spectrum is complex and research is continuing ion this area of neuroscience..)
One of the ways we can help teach empathy systematically is through the
Learning by Teaching (LbT) method. Students have to prepare and present new content to their classmates, and in doing so they have to reflect continuously on the mental processes of the other students in the classroom.
The students are not only expected to convey a certain topic or content, but also to choose their own methods and approaches in teaching classmates that subject.
Through this process, the students develop a feeling for group reactions, networking and other important communication skills..
I recently came across a perfect description & summary of what empathy can do for us:
"In our highly polarized and competitive world, one person’s win is often another’s loss. One team’s, one party’s, one whatever’s excitement is sometimes disappointment for another.But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a way that everyone can win, without anyone giving up their values. It’s called empathy. The beautiful thing about empathy is that you can feel another person's pain as if its your own and this empathy brings compassion, but you don’t have to save them or solve their problem. You can understand another person’s perspective without giving up your own. You can respect another person’s opinion without agreeing with them."
~Ian Lawton, Soul Seeds
Something I teach my daughter and my students is this: Just as you are capable of feeling another's pain & dissapointment, you can also feel their happiness, joy and success, if you choose to. Empathy is not merely a topic for "Character Ed" class, but a lense through which we can view and interact with the world and the people in it, in classrooms, at home and beyond.
Read Ian Lawton's entire post here:
Unity's Win, Win, Win
Learn more about the Learning by Teaching (LbT) Method here:
Investigating Learning by Teaching
Learning by Teaching: The Goal is Independence
Qualitative Reasoning techniques to support Learning by Teaching:
The Teachable Agents Project
Learning by Teaching as a Pedagogical Approach
Learn more about teaching Empathy here:
Teaching Empathy to Children with Autism
Strategies for developing Empathy
Boston Children's Foundation
Theory of Mind
3 Empathy Building Exercises for Home & Work
Negative Effects of Social Support & Empathy
To contact Barbara or to report a broken link:
bodylogique@yahoo.com
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