Can A Mom's Chattering Raise Empathetic Kids? Study Says Yes.

This is proof of how much influence a mother’s words have on her child.

A new study conducted by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia found that moms who often talked to their kids about other people’s feelings were more likely to raise empathetic children.

The Study

Researchers worked with over 120 Australian children, aged 4 to 6, for a period of 2 years. They took note of words used by moms when communicating with their kids, and measured the children on 2 things.

First, the ability to deduce other people’s beliefs and second, how they used these deductions to predict people’s behavior.

The kids who scored high on empathy were from moms who spoke to them about others’ feelings and behavior in relation to certain situations.

Additional Findings

The research also supports previous studies which found that moms who used the words: think, know, believe and feel to explain others’ feelings, as well as their own, were more likely to influence a child to be empathetic.

Why is this important?

Empathy is the ability to understand or feel another person’s emotions.

If your child is able to put herself in another’s shoes, she will be more caring and supportive of others. This can help her treat strangers, peers, siblings and other people around her better.

The takeaway here is simple: communication.

Teach your child empathy by explaining how other’s might feel, think or behave when put in a certain situation. If you don’t want to do this, you can have your kids nearby while you chat with a friend – of course, the topic should be on empathy for your child to pick up on it.

Photo:
Creative Commons from o5com

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