Helping Your Child Develop Empathy
Why is it important to teach empathy to your children—or even yourself?
Empathy is a powerful skill that can help assist children in navigating social situations from a young age. By teaching empathy, you will give your child a better chance at forming relationships when progressing through their educational years.
Empathy goes beyond the act of simple kindness, it's about truly grasping another person’s perspective and emotions. In today’s world, we can all agree that we need tools like empathy to better understand one another and our perceived experiences. By nurturing empathy, we can strengthen relationships, enhance communication, and deepen our connections with others. In today’s world, where many interactions are fast-paced and surface-level, empathy allows us to slow down and connect on a human level.
When we as adults practice empathy intentionally, we’re not only improving our own relationships—we’re giving children a model for how to engage with others in meaningful, respectful ways.
How Does Empathy Develop in the Brain?
Empathy begins to form early in life. Babies as young as a few months old show signs of emotional mirroring—crying when another baby cries or calming in response to soothing tones. These early signs are rooted in what neuroscientists call mirror neurons—special brain cells that help us reflect and understand the emotional states of others. These neurons are believed to play a crucial role in how we imitate, relate to, and connect with others' experiences.
As children grow, their ability to feel and show empathy becomes more sophisticated. Around age 2 to 3, children begin to show concern for others and may offer comfort when someone is upset. By ages 5 to 7, many children begin to demonstrate cognitive empathy—being able to take someone else’s perspective and consider how others might feel even in situations they haven’t experienced themselves.
This development is closely tied to brain regions involved in emotional regulation, perspective-taking, and social cognition—especially areas like the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. For some children, these areas develop differently or more slowly, which can impact their ability to read social cues, control impulses, or relate to others' emotions.
That’s why it’s essential to both model and teach empathy throughout childhood. When children are given tools and guidance to understand others—and when their brains are supported through developmentally appropriate exercises and social experiences—they are more likely to grow into emotionally intelligent, compassionate individuals.
How to Practice and Teach Empathy at Home
Here are a few ways to grow your own empathy and teach this essential skill to your child:
Really listen, don’t just ‘hear’
Make space for uninterrupted, meaningful conversation. Practice active listening by making eye contact, summarizing what you hear, and asking thoughtful questions. When your child sees you doing this, they learn to listen deeply, too.
Share your feelings, but don’t overshadow theirs.
It’s okay to connect through shared experiences, but always start by validating the other person’s emotions. Ask your child questions like, “How do you think they felt?” before offering your own perspective. This helps build their emotional vocabulary and awareness.
When someone opens up to you, it may be an instinct to share your own related experiences. However, it’s important to remember that you need to first understand their feelings and let them feel heard about their current situation before jumping in with a similar experience. If you’re ever unsure about whether or not you should share your experience, you can always ask to see if they would like to hear your story. This allows for you to connect and add to the conversation, but in a respectful way.
Teach your child that it’s okay to connect through shared experiences, but always start by validating the other person’s emotions. Ask your child questions like, “How do you think they felt?” before offering your own perspective. This helps build their emotional vocabulary and awareness.
Avoid making assumptions.
It’s important not to jump to conclusions when someone is sharing a story or feelings—it’s easy to assume things, especially when you’ve experienced a similar situation, but remember that just because your situation went one way, it doesn’t mean that every situation does, too. Even if something feels familiar, slow down and ask open-ended questions. This teaches your child not to rush to judgment and to consider different perspectives—an essential part of empathetic thinking.
Model asking open-ended questions with your child:
To understand someone's emotions:
- How did that make you feel?
- What was the hardest part for you?
- Can you tell me more about what that was like for you?
- What’s been on your mind about that lately?
- How do you feel about how it all turned out?
To explore their perspective:
- What do you think made them act that way?
- How do you think they felt in that moment?
- If you were in their shoes, what would you be thinking?
- What do you wish other people understood about this?
- What do you think would help right now?
Check your biases.
Everyone has a different beginning. It is through our environments that we are shaped and influenced, making it important to remember that people see the world through different lenses. For example, you may view certain holidays with warmth and adoration, but someone else may see that same holiday as painful and sorrowful. By understanding that everyone’s situation is different, you will gain better awareness in how to approach sensitive topics.
Talk openly with your child about how people come from different backgrounds, and how their feelings or reactions might be influenced by unique experiences. These conversations encourage empathy across differences and cultivate respect.
Offer support, both big and small.
Help your child notice how people express their needs. Do they want a hug? A text? Some quiet time? Help them learn to ask what others need, and respond with appropriate support.
What If My Child Struggles With Empathy?
Developmental milestones for social-emotional skills, including developing empathetic feelings, should happen at a precise age for every child . Some kids may have difficulty identifying others’ emotions, listening without interrupting, or connecting in meaningful ways with friends and family. This doesn’t mean they’re uncaring—it may signal a need for additional support in how their brain processes social and emotional input.
The Brain Balance Program helps children strengthen the brain-body connections that are essential for empathy, attention, emotional regulation, and social interaction. Through a multi-modal, drug-free approach that integrates physical activity, sensory work, cognitive training, and nutrition, Brain Balance helps build stronger brain connectivity—supporting your child’s ability to feel and show empathy in everyday life.
If your child is struggling to connect with others, listen deeply, or manage emotions in social situations, Brain Balance can help unlock the skills they need to thrive.
The Brain Balance Approach: A Whole-Brain Program
At Brain Balance, we’ve developed a multimodal, integrative approach that strengthens brain connectivity across multiple domains. We identify developmental strengths and weaknesses to better understand how all aspects of development synchronize to support higher-level brain functions such as the ability to sustain attention, reduce hyperactivity and impulsivity, regulate mood, emotions and behaviors, and learn in the classroom. Reducing developmental gaps helps to reduce challenges in these areas.
Our program targets:
- Sensory processing and integration
- Auditory and visual systems
- Rhythm and timing
- Fine and gross motor coordination
- Executive function and memory
- Attention and inhibitory control
We also emphasize nutrition and lifestyle as critical factors in brain development. Dopamine production depends on nutrients like tyrosine, vitamin B6, magnesium, and omega-3s.⁵ If a child is a picky eater or has a restricted diet, they may not be getting the building blocks needed to produce and absorb dopamine effectively.
A tired, undernourished brain cannot perform optimally. That’s why our program includes educational resources on sleep, nutrition, and brain-healthy routines—so families can support long-term progress beyond the program itself.
Learn More
To explore similar resources on getting active in the summertime, or learn about our research-backed approach, visit the Brain Balance Blog.
