You have the school supplies purchased and loaded up in your child's backpack, ready to start the year on the right foot - but what about making sure your child is equipped with empathy?
Establishing strong, successful relationships and friendships are vital to your child's development and growth. "Practicing empathy is really just watering the seeds for kindness, tolerance, respect, and compassion," says Dr. Tiffany Spanier of Allegro Pediatrics. Sending your child back to school with a better understanding of these social elements can help them know what to do in bullying situations and establish a better communication connection between you and your child.
So what is empathy? "Empathy is a life skill and it's something that helps us put ourselves in someone else's shoes," explains Dr. Spanier, "It's when we try to understand and care about what someone else is thinking and feeling."
Kids can learn how to implement empathy by watching their parents and taking notes from their relationship with mom and dad. Having a strong parent child relationship can help kids have successful friendships with peers as they grow older and into their teens. "We want to encourage our kids to make friendships and we also want to encourage them to maybe even participate in adult supervised groups such as academic clubs or team sports, things that can get them into these relationships," Dr. Spanier urges.
When kids are aware of compassion and kindness, they can be more aware of what to do in bullying situations, whether they are bystanders or are getting bullied. Parents should watch for signs that their child may be getting picked on at school. "Sometimes you'll see frequent headaches or stomachaches, or difficulty sleeping," Dr. Spanier explains, "We want parents to be really checking in." It's very important to maintaining an open line of communication between you and your child.
Dr. Spanier suggests going to www.stopbullying.gov or Allegro Pediatrics for resources that can help parents facilitate conversations about bullying, including role play situations, clear examples, and solutions. Allegro Pediatrics is dedicated to caring not only for a child's physical health, but their development and well being. "So often parents think about their pediatricians as some place they take their kids for bumps and bruises, but we're actually caring about the whole child."
Allegro Pediatrics has eight locations around the Eastside and offers same-day appointments everyday for urgent matters.
This segment sponsored by Allegro Pediatrics. Watch New Day Northwest 11:00 weekdays on KING-TV Ch.5 or streaming live on KING5.com. Connect with New Day via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
