All Things CLASS

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent

I really enjoyed reading this post. The information was organized so nicely and I found your post to be informative. Children are so perceptive and are so capable of being empathetic. I like the strategy you proposed for infants- acknowledging him/her and always making sure the infant feels heard makes sure him/her feels safe and at ease. I see how that contributes in future social/emotional development and ultimately empathy.
Thank you

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent

I really enjoyed reading this post. The information was organized so nicely and I found your post to be informative. Children are so perceptive and are so capable of being empathetic. I like the strategy you proposed for infants- acknowledging him/her and always making sure the infant feels heard makes sure him/her feels safe and at ease. I see how that contributes in future social/emotional development and ultimately empathy.
Thank you

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent

I really enjoyed reading this post. The information was organized so nicely and I found your post to be informative. Children are so perceptive and are so capable of being empathetic. I like the strategy you proposed for infants- acknowledging him/her and always making sure the infant feels heard makes sure him/her feels safe and at ease. I see how that contributes in future social/emotional development and ultimately empathy.
Thank you

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent

Happy Teaching with CLASS Tuesday!

Recently, we had a question in the CLASS Learning Community that empowered us to make this podcast episode for you all! @Whitney Martin asked, "What's the best way to teach empathy to a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old that just can't grasp it and their emotions are all over the place?"

This week, our host @Mamie Morrow TS chats with @Joanna Parker TS about all things Empathy. This episode includes key strategies to help guide children to build empathy in the infant, toddler, and preschool years. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, be sure to check out the newest episode on our homepage, or on our Teaching with CLASS webpage! After you listen, come back to this discussion thread to share your feedback, read through the notes, and connect with others!

This episode is packed with information, so I took a lot of notes so it's easy to refer back and remember what you learned. 

Joanna explains that when we are trying to define empathy and what that looks like in early childhood, it's really all about understanding social-emotional development. We can't expect children to display empathy in the same way that we do as adults because they are still in the process of developing empathy. We want to instill foundational skills so they can continue to build upon them until they reach how we think of empathy as adults. 

Here are some ways empathy begins to appear in those early childhood years:

Infant:

• Attachment: As human beings, we are programmed to connect with others. Infants seek out adults to care for them and to meet their needs, and fostering those early attachment relationships is how we support developing those skills.
• Reactions: A lot of an infant's ability to build relationships and connect with others is built through how you interact with that child.

• Responsive caregiving: When an infant cries, is tired, is hungry, you are responsive. We message, through our sensitivity and responsiveness, that the world is a safe place and that they can count on you to meet their needs. That is a key piece of building empathy.
• Strategies to try: If you are busy with others in your classroom, even just verbally acknowledging a baby that is in distress or telling the babies about what is going on in the world around them helps to support social and emotional development and empathy.
• A study from Yale (Video): Joanna talked about a study at Yale that showed that infants preferred characters who were helpful, be sure to check out the study here if you are interested!

Toddlers:

• Co-regulation Regulation: We know that as humans, we build the capacity to manage our emotions, our bodies, and our behavior without support between the ages of five and twenty-five (self-regulation). For infants and toddlers, we think of this as co-regulation as they are managing their emotional state through their caregiver.
• Independence: Toddlers are very focused on independence and their sense of identity, so thinking of how to support toddlers in beginning to understand this independence through expectations, where they are gaining more control and decision-making abilities and independence throughout their daily routines. 
• Behavior guidance: How are we in tune with that toddler? how can we provide focused attention, support them in knowing the expectations, and begin to know how to meet those expectations. It can be a dance, but through our respectful actions, we can guide them. They can learn Social and emotional skills through leadership opportunities, and begin to learn some friendship skills to begin to develop empathy. This can also lead to understanding the perspective of others, and even responding to the emotions of others in the classroom. 
• Regard for Student Perspectives: We can offer choice and independence within the structure of the classroom. We can provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to be independent and do things on their own. It's a dance to give enough independence, but also the relationship and routines to help. Establishing routines opens the door to infuse more and more independence into each day. Think about how you can set up your classroom and your routines to support their independence.

Toddlers in building friendships: Play is a developmental skill. It begins with onlooker play, and later parallel play in those toddler years. Here are ways you can help toddlers as they develop in their play:

• Label their actions: Verbalize what the child's peer is doing, what they are feeling, and what they are thinking and saying.
• Label their peers' actions: It's all about choice for toddlers - you need to have those opportunities for peer interaction to begin to build those skills, and then to use our language to label the environment to call their attention to their friends in the classroom. 
• Label your actions: Also label all of this for yourself (your thoughts, feelings, actions). This really supports their emotional literacy and helps them to understand emotions. 

Preschool years:

• Self-regulation: They are entering the world of being able to self-regulate at this stage and you can begin to use the environment to remind them how to regulate their emotions (example: signs around the room). Recognize that as they are entering these years, it is not just their interactions with you that they are able to calm down, manage their body, their feelings, their behaviors, but you can actually have visuals in the environment that support children in knowing what to do.
• Safe Places: Create spaces, like a calm down corner, where children can go. 
• Routines: Some classrooms have rituals around community building, greeting each other in the morning, recognizing who's here and who's not here, and sending well wishes to people who are not here. This can build up a sense of belonging and community.
• Utilize peer models: It doesn't all have to be on adults in these years! Peer models (especially in mixed-age classrooms) work well, where you can have other children assist in problem-solving and helping to regulate emotions, or they can share the perspective of another and help to resolve a conflict over sharing or turn-taking. (be sure to check out this video Joanna mentioned about a brother helping his sibling regulate their emotions)
• The role of Peacemaker: Joanna also shared an example of a job in a classroom of a peacemaker. There was a peacemaker stick that the children decorated together, and if there was a conflict, the peacemaker would bring the stick over and help the children resolve their conflict. 

Joanna then dives into the Cognitive development that is occurring during these transformational years:

• The theory of the mind is when children begin to recognize that others think differently than they do, and this is a huge cognitive milestone. Being able to take the perspective of another is a key skill that even adults struggle with, but ultimately leads to empathy. It's so important to recognize diversity and diversity throughout our interactions with children and through the experiences, we offer to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Joanna said, "We want the classroom experience to be a mirror where children see themselves, but also a window where they're able to see other ways of being and other forms of knowledge."

How can educators ensure that they are modeling acceptance and eliciting other perspectives throughout the day? 

• Culture and routine: How we are with babies is very cultural. Have an openness to ask families things like how they sleep at home, how they feed the infant? Then we can do our best to provide care in the same way they would at home. 

• Ask, Acknowledge, and Adapt framework: You have these conversations, acknowledge the differences, and adapt as much as you can. This gives strong messages to children that you value the differences of others, that you respect different forms of knowledge, and that you are willing to adapt as needed. 

• Consider your body language: "I think sometimes as educators, we are not aware of how strong our body language is. When we are dismissive of family practice or not inclusive of different languages, we are giving a message that is not inclusive and really doesn't support that idea of valuing and taking the perspective of others."

I know this episode was truly packed with so much great information! I personally loved listening to this conversation, and I really hope you enjoyed it too. I can't wait to hear your thoughts below!

Best,

Allison

Key Takeaways

Power of how you are: The little interactions and moments that you might not even be aware of have such strong messages and really support those key social-emotional skills that are ultimately tied to children's cognitive development, language development, and overall well being. It's the little moments that matter. Be present and be kind.

3 strategies to foster empathy in the classroom:

1. Positive climate: being in tune with children, respecting children's emotions and needs, supporting friendship skills creating a sense of belonging and community
2. Teacher sensitivity: being responsive to children, narrating what children are feeling (emotional literacy), and explicitly individualizing
3. Regard: child focus and choice, providing opportunities for independence and autonomy promoting a sense of being capable and competent