Duluth, GA, Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ChildCare Education Institute® (CCEI), an online child care training provider dedicated exclusively to the early care and education workforce, offers SOC104: Promoting Empathy and Other “Prosocial” Behavior as a no-cost trial course to new CCEI users September 1-30, 2020.
Empathy promotes meaningful relationships and better communication and problem−solving skills. It also promotes greater understanding between people of different backgrounds, and it is an essential building block for a secure, prosperous community. Empathy and sympathy are both prosocial behaviors and behaviors that benefit other people. Cooperativeness, kindness, trustworthiness, and generosity are also prosocial behaviors. These are all behaviors child care professionals should promote in their classroom.
Some very recent studies suggest that babies have an innate sense of right and wrong. Admittedly, current research in this area is a bit thin, but trends are beginning to develop in the data. Researchers in several studies have shown infants almost invariably favor “characters” that exhibit certain prosocial behaviors. Babies are just beginning the great developmental process, and so they offer a unique window into the real workings of the human mind. However, studies involving infants and toddlers are notoriously challenging, and certain “findings” must be greeted with some skepticism.
In preschool and kindergarten, children develop basic prosocial behaviors quite readily thanks to basic social pressures, like the simple desire not to be the only one not doing something or the only one to be singled out for correction by the teacher. Some children learn these behaviors only after they have been “called out” for breaking the rules by the teacher; other children learn them because they don’t want to be that child who gets “called out.” There’s some primitive empathy involved in such learning, as children may empathize with their classmate when the teacher corrects him. They remember that feeling, even though they weren’t the ones being corrected, and they try to avoid that consequence for themselves.
This course provides early childhood professionals with strategies and tools for promoting the development of empathy in young children. Participants will learn what empathy is and why it is important, and they will learn about related communication methods and activities. As language, experience, and skills expand and develop, caregivers should take more explicit actions to promote prosocial behavior. Remember, this isn’t a matter of crafting a few great “empathy” lessons; rather, success in this area requires a consistent approach in all forms of communication and conflict resolution.