The development of true empathy and compassion is a step-by-step process that builds as children develop and experience life.

Sympathy means recognising someone’s emotions, but empathy is a step further. Empathy is when you feel the same emotion as the other person because you can imagine yourself in their place. Compassion takes this further. When you are compassionate, you feel the need to act on another’s emotions to help them to feel better.

As fathers you can help your child to learn empathy and compassion by supporting them through the steps of development and providing them with ways to explore their own and other people’s emotions in different situations.

Teach your child to:

• Recognise their own feelings.
• Identify ways they could help themselves to feel better if they are feeling a difficult emotion.
• Expose your child to other people’s situations to give them experience. Story books, TV shows or movies, news or talking about real scenarios will give your child an insight into many different situations.
• Recognise what others are feeling. “It looks like Molly is sad. Does she look sad to you?” “How do you think Sam felt about that?”
• Imagine what it might feel like to be in that other person’s situation. “How would you feel if that happened to you?”
• Identify ways they could help the person to feel better. “What could you do if that happened to your friend?” What could you do if you saw that happening?”