Empathy means an individual's effort to understand the feelings and thoughts of another person by putting himself in the shoes of another person. Establishing empathy is one of the most important features of human relations, and it is also shown as a factor that makes it easier for people to live in harmony with each other in society.
Many people prefer to express their feelings in other ways rather than expressing them with words. In order to understand what others are feeling, it is first necessary to decipher these non-verbal expressions. (Body posture, facial expression, tone of voice, and many other things.) If you get the feeling that someone's body posture or facial expression does not match what they are saying, then you will need to pay attention to what is being said and how they are saying it. According to communication researchers, emotional messages are 90% non-verbal expressions. Emotions expressed in this way are often perceived unconsciously, such as the feeling of fear evident in the tone of voice or anger manifested in the facial expression. These messages are often answered with “ignorant” silence or acted upon. The ability to perceive the messages sent by people is a learned condition.
The child's ability to empathize will improve his moral development and will also facilitate his social communication with other people. Therefore, it is one of the duties of the family to give him various trainings that will help him develop empathy. As a result of the research, many experts say that children can empathize from a very young age, and they state that this occurs instinctively in children. When a baby hears another baby crying and starts crying too, it is called the earliest example of empathy. The effort of a two or three year old child to make a sad or unhappy person happy by giving him or her a favorite item is again an example of empathy seen in early childhood.
What Can You Do?
●Your child tells you something or shares his/her own feelings with you Be sure to listen to him. This behavior will tell him/her that you care about the thoughts and feelings of other people.
●Never change the subject or gloss over when your child is sharing a problem with you. This will shake your child's trust in you.
●Read a book (tell a story) to your child and after reading, talk to your child about the feelings and thoughts of the characters in the book. In this way, you will have an idea of how much your child understands (shares) the feelings and thoughts of the character.
●You can do the same activity while watching television and talk to your child about the feelings and thoughts of the character you watch.
● Try to explain your own feelings and thoughts to him and help him understand you. For example, your child wanted to spill a meal that you had prepared with great effort and you were very upset about this situation. In order to express your own feelings to him/her as a result of this incident, establish a relationship between something your child loves and the situation and try to explain your feelings to him/her through this relationship. You can explain the situation to your child by saying, "You try so hard to make a car with Legos, and I also try so hard to cook. You would be upset if I ruined the car you made, and I would be very upset if you spilled the food I made." This activity has a very important role, especially for young children, to gain an idea about empathy. Because at this age, children tend to understand abstract concepts through concrete examples.
●In your child's fights with his/her sibling, you can use the method of making each other explain their feelings and thoughts to solve the problem. Remember, you also have the chance to direct this conversation in the way you want with your authority over your children. After this conversation, you can explain that the fight is a meaningless and fruitless activity for both of them.
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