Can 3-year olds show empathy?

The 3 year olds class is having snacks, it’s around 10.30am. The children have a place where they usually keep their water bottles to pick up during the day in the class. Ab is drinking water from his water bottle at the table and keeps it on the table itself. Av takes Ab’s water bottle from the table, very graciously returns it to the window. Ab, confused by his bottle being moved tries to take it back, perhaps he was not done yet. Av just continues to move it further on the window where everyone’s bottle was kept as if telling Ab, “this is where it should go”. Unable to understand Av’s intentions and thoroughly frustrated by now, Ab gets upset and starts crying. Maybe, Ab didn’t like the intrusion into how and where he kept his water bottle and Av was more concerned about returning things to their rightful place.

F: Why don’t you talk to Ab about what he is doing and that you are not liking it?

This didn’t work. Ab did not stop crying and no amount of conversation seemed to be helping. Av struggled to see the impact of his behavior on Ab and Ab struggled to see the positive intention behind Av’s action.

An who was sitting and watching all of this, seemed to have sensed and understood Ab’s discomfort. She takes the water bottle from the window and gives it to Ab letting him have it back on the table.

She is not done yet; she runs to get a tissue and hands one over to Ab to console him too!

In this scenario, what An did was extraordinary where she showed an incredible amount of empathy to understand both the emotion and the intention. An took the initiative to solve the problem too and go over and above to show care. Ab was not communicating much yet, hence, An’s efforts and thinking on the feet seemed even more exceptional.

Many a times, children seem to mimic a caring behavior from home. But thinking on your feet to solve a classmate’s problem needs empathy in good measure.

When we as facilitators and responsible adults who work with children learn to observe these nuances, cultivate and nurture them is when we create an empathetic generation.

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.