Empathy is an important social and emotional skill that helps children understand how others feel and to respond with kindness and compassion. As children work to develop empathy, they are better able to build friendships, resolve conflict, solve problems, and participate positively in their community. Empathy is something that grows over time as children develop, which means that parents can play a key role in helping their child learn and practice this skill in everyday moments. Just remember, as an adult you have a fully developed brain full of perspective-taking, emotional language, and understanding. As your child learns empathy there may be moments where they respond in a way that does not align with your more developed understanding of what it means to be kind and thoughtful. It will take patience and understanding as you support your child in learning about empathy through these small moments of daily practice.
There is nothing like watching one’s child do something they love and seeing them hit it out of the park! That’s because it doesn’t happen all that often. Much of the time, things are fairly ordinary as you sit on the sidelines of practices, plays, recitals, sports, debates; and, sometimes, kids have a really bad day (which is awful to watch)!
The school bell hasn’t even rung, but the battle for your child’s calendar has already begun.
On top of their typical school curriculum learning, many students with learning disabilities may also be involved in remedial instruction (e.g., tutoring to build reading strategies). Despite the time and effort the children put in during their time with teachers and other professionals, they still require additional support from parents to consolidate the learning of information for later retrieval. Like a muscle in our bodies, memory needs to be continually exercised to ensure it stays in good shape.
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