Teaching empathy

13 months to 5 years Growing brains Language and communication Limits and boundaries Social and emotional skills

Strategies for teaching empathy with tamariki to enable them to learn from their experiences and understand their own behaviour.

Teaching empathy

If tamariki don’t actually understand what ‘I’m sorry’ means, they’re not learning from the experience and therefore not really learning about empathy.

There are better ways to teach kids about empathy.

A better approach is to help them make the connection between what they’ve done and how it has hurt another person, either physically or emotionally.

Pātai atu ki te whānau:

  • What ideas might work for your tamaiti to learn about how others feel?

Focusing on the other person’s feelings might help them to better understand how their behaviour has impacted on someone else.

Use examples and be specific:

  • “Auē, look at Aroha. She’s crying and rubbing her arm where you hit her. Let’s find out if she’s OK. What could we do to help her feel better?”

Asking kids for their ideas is a great strategy for showing them that their opinion is important, and sometimes they have the answers within them.

Helpful resources for whānau

  • Whakatipu Te Māhuri, page 8 and 9

    Whānau say – Our tamaiti has grown a lot. They can run fast and hardly ever fall over, they’re counting, and chanting the alphabet, and can do a lot of things.

    pdf 247 KB
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  • Brain, Behavior, and Development

    Brain, Behavior, and Development
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  • A caregiver and a baby in a stroller point excitedly at ducks in a pond. Text reads:  "I can watch / Ka taea e au te mātakitaki."

    Ka taea e au te mātakitaki – I can watch

    So much of my early learning comes from what I see.

    jpg 975 KB
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  • Children's Voices

    Children's Voices

    Children's voices is a compilation of interviews with young children from many different backgrounds and cultures. Their words inspire parents to think about what really matters.

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