Dear Readers,

In today's New York Times I read this wonderful article, "Empathy's Natural, but Nurturing It Helps"  written by Jane E. Brody in the Personal Health section—I thought it was worth posting a link to it.

" Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and recognize and respond to what that person is feeling...."

The article discusses the fact that children are born with different capacities for empathy,  part of their innate qualities, but that parents and other important adult figures in a child's life can foster empathic behavior in children by modeling it. Examples given are parents or guardians who are sympathetic to the feeling of others and teachers who are warm and affectionate. An effective way for adults to teach children about empathy is the substance and style they use when correcting a child's behavior . The article states: "...recognize the feelings behind a child's behavior...and when trying to correct bad behavior...remain calm, not punitive."

Personal Health - Empathy Is Natural, but Nurturing It Helps ...

Feb 16, 2010 ... Empathy's Natural, but Nurturing It Helps .... Next Article in Health (21 of 31) » A version of this article appeared ... Inside NYTimes.com ...
www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/16brod.html - 3 hours ago


Enjoy, and please send me your comments and questions.

Warm regards,
Diane