The Emergence Of Empathy In Early Childhood

“The Baby in the Well” is a useful source to get information about empathy and how it has impacted

At 6 weeks infants develop a social smile, at 3 month laughter and curiosity develop, at 4 months full responsive smiles emerge, from 4-8 months they develop anger, from 9014 months they develop a fear of social events, at 12 months the are fearful of unexpected sights and sounds, and at 18 months they are self-aware, feel pride, shame, and embarrassment. In the first two years, infants develop from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness. Emotions in infants are produced from their body as opposed to their thoughts. Therefore fast and uncensored reactions are common in infants. During their toddler years, the strength of their emotions will increase.

This literature review focuses on the development of empathy in early childhood, and how children show their feelings in everyday activity. How do you measure empathy? Which methods do you use to observe and measure empathy? What is the best way to improve empathetic and prosocial behavior in young children? These are a few of the questions I had going into this review. We know that teaching empathy is important, because teaching children to care is something that impacts their actions towards others throughout the rest of their lives.

While reading chapter four, the term “empathy” caught my eye and a sparkle appeared because I tend to experience the world from others point of view. The saying, “treat others how you would like to be treated” is implanted in my brain from when I was a child. Which has helped me overcome obstacles in my adult years. I will illustrate two incidents in my life where empathy plays a major role.

At the preschool level, biting and hitting is quite common, but the first thing we as educators need to do is “Stop the Behavior Immediately” (Laureate, 2015) Next have the “offender put an ice pack on the child who is bitten, this builds empathy.” (Laureate, 2016) Honestly, this shocked be because in the districts I have worked in the child bitten was immediately taken to the school nurse. Dr. Gootman also states, “We want to give the child responsibility for the child they hurt.” (Laureate, 2016) yet to me will this young child truly understand at the young age of 3 or 4 years old what they did?

Creating foster empathy in the game to support educational or activist programming is the key method and goal [3]. In this they allow player to enact the role and to have a perspective of other people. This method is used to develop empathy in the player. Empathy improves people’s attitudes and behaviors towards other individuals or groups, while a lack of empathy is associated with more negative attitudes and behaviors. The positive effect of empathy is motivating a person to be more social with other people.

Empathy is a key helping value and has many definitions. According to Egan and Schroeder, empathy is a personality trait that allows a person to feel what others feel and have the ability to understand other people from the inside. It is also a state of feeling for others that is situation specific and can be a, “Feeling for and understand of another’s persons experiences” (Egan and Schroeder, 2009). Empathy is a “Basic value that informs and drive all helping behavior”, a communication skill and has three phases, empathic resonance, expressed empathy and received empathy (Egan and Schroeder, 2009).

The development topic of empathy is shown in Chapter Two. Empathy is the ability to understand the emotions and concerns of another person. In this chapter Maya describes a time when she was five and her Uncle Willie was not using his cane and trying to stand up straight as two travelers were in the store. In the book Maya explains how her uncle is tired of being disabled and just for that moment he wanted to appear normal. Maya narrates how she, “understood and felt closer to him at that moment than ever before”. Maya is in the psychological development of early childhood and has started to develop moral emotions from her increase in social experiences between her family and the customers of the store. Maya at the age of five comprehends

As with many other skills, empathy is a learned skill that requires an awareness that other people think, feel, and behave in ways that are both similar and different from one’s self, or put simply, being able to relate to and understand what another person is experiencing or feeling (McDonald & Messinger, 2011). One of the first experiences that people have with empathy frequently appears as a baby when we hear another infant cry (Szalavitz, 2010). Other research has shown that infants not only favor adults who appear to be more helpful, but they also tend to offer voluntary help to adults who appear to be having difficulties when reaching for something (Szalavitz, 2010). Therefore, according to this research, it might be suggested that whether

Early childhood development meant may be defined as the critical years of education for toddlers. During these years they become increasingly aware of their surrounds and the behavior. Children will adapt to the behaviors which are visual to them. During these years child absorb more information than the average adult over a 4 year span. This is because their sole purpose is to learn and grow. As parents, we have to be very aware of the surrounds and things we present them with. Behavior learned now will carry out. The question of teaching them moral ethics at this point is a controversial issue.

My parents always talk about how I was a really mean kid. I think the reason for this was because I really didn’t care how others felt. As I grew older I developed empathy. I can look back on my life and see a correlation with the amount of reading I completed, and the the expansion of my empathy. Empathy is important because it helps you connect with people, and it helps you understand people’s motives. As a teacher knowing these things helps because I interact with people everyday in both my personal and professional life.

Empathy is extraordinarily important for children to understand and eventually put into practice, as it exercises their ability to feel and respect the emotions of other people. Empathy also plays a big role in trust and support- both of which are very important aspects of any relationship, and is necessary for living a healthy, functional life in today’s society. In her article, Dovey describes “A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology […] showed that, when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves.” (Dovey par. 11). This means that when people, or in this case, children, read stories, their brains react as if they were going through the same situations and emotions that they read about. This is a great way for kids to learn about empathy, why it’s important, and how to apply it to their own lives. One may argue that, while reading may trigger empathetic feelings in the majority of people, those who enjoy reading have greater empathetic tendencies than others, making reading to teach empathy only applicable to those who like to read and have these higher-than-average tendencies. Dovey also addresses this, stating that “other studies published in 2006 and 2009 showed […] that people who read a lot of fiction [tended] to be better at empathizing with others (even after the researchers had accounted for the potential bias that people with greater empathetic

Prosocial behavior is important to psychologists because it is a significant part of development in a child. Children learn prosocial behavior from many influences in their lives including parents, peers, teachers, caregivers, and the media (Williams, O’Driscoll, & Moore, 2014). Prosocial behavior is any action intended to help others. Children learn their earliest behaviors from their parents. If a child never participated in prosocial behavior, there would be negative impacts. Some negative impacts could include: less likelihood to develop a sense of gratitude, less involvement with others, and Imitating their parent’s actions plays a crucial role in their social interactions throughout the child’s

When you are first born, you can't talk, so you can't show emotions besides through facial expressions. In an article written by Paul C Holinger, an M.D. he stated, “Why focus on feelings? Because feelings lead to behaviors- our actions or inaction stem from our feelings,”(Citation). From

From the beginning, babies are born with their own personalities. Crying is the first sense of emotion and is used to communicate many different things. Psychosocial development increases, as they are able to express more emotions. Between zero to three months of age, babies can smile. They start to become curious and show interest in certain things. By three to six months, infants can