How many times have you heard someone asking a child “How do you think that made him feel?” or “How do you think that made her feel?” ?? Being able to put yourself imaginatively into the shoes of another and feel what the world is like from their perspective is a skill that we, as adults expect children to be able to do automatically from a very young age.

Sure enough research has shown time and again that children are born with an inbuilt ability to display empathy for others. A baby will cry if it hears another cry, a toddler with reach to hug his mother if he sees her cry, but as children grow their ability to empathise seems to become less of a natural process and they will need help if they are to maintain this ability in later life.

But how can we expect young children to be able to show empathy for others if they have not yet been given the opportunity to recognise, explore and work through their own emotions? Let alone be able to identify and ultimately empathise with the emotions of another! We as the adults who interact with preschool children on an everyday basis need to give children situations which allow them the chance to grasp all of these skills. We need to create an “emotion rich” environment where emotions and feelings are as much a part of everyday language, discussions and displays as numerical or literacy based activities.

Children need us to point out ” you look very smiley today…you must be feeling happy” or “your face is very red and scrunched up…are you feeling cross?”. They do not naturally know the difference between feelings which may feel similar. For example when you are feeling happy you heart starts to pound, you feel like jumping about, you smile, you might get butterflies in your tummy…….and how do you feel when you are excited?? My guess is the same!!!! Children need our help on an everyday basis to identify the physical feeling and link it to the language of emotion.

So next time you walk into your early years setting…stop…look around and think “is this an emotion rich environment?” and if the answer is no…think how you can plan to make it a place where all children are able to explore and express their feelings and emotions on an everyday basis and where building empathy for others is a key overall objective of your setting.

Kirstine Beeley is an experienced teacher in early years, primary and special educational needs settings and now works as an independent trainer and consultant ( http://www.earlyideas.co.uk) specialising in helping early years professionals to develop exciting early years learning environments.