Building Empathy With Wild Kratts

Before leaving for preschool one morning, my four-year-old checked on her jar of ladybug larvae, watered her little flower garden and shared a bagel with her little brother. While she didn’t know the term, she was practicing empathy.

Empathy is a skill — one that both kids and adults can cultivate and strengthen with practice. It requires us to imagine how someone else is feeling and then respond in a caring manner.

When kids care for living things — from babies to animals to plants — they exercise their empathy muscles and learn through experience that everything has needs, these needs are not always identical, and they can play a role to meet those needs.

Let’s take a closer look at those ideas:

Caretaking teaches us that all living creatures are fundamentally connected. We all need food, shelter and care. When those needs aren’t met, we cannot thrive.

Caring for living things teaches children that we all have unique needs, and this informs their empathy. For example, we all need food, but the baby can’t share big brother’s sandwich quite yet. We all need love, but the cat may not want a hug. Some plants require full sun, and some blossom in the shade.

Children’s brains are hard-wired for empathy, so when we give them opportunities to act upon those feelings, we build their confidence as “helpers.” As Harvard psychologist Richard Weissboard said, kids and adults alike are “more distressed when we feel helpless and passive — and more comfortable when we are taking action.”

In each episode, the Kratt brothers demonstrate their respect and care for the creatures that share the planet with us. They teach children about the distinct needs of animals, building a sense of connection with them.

You can build on this by encouraging your child to care for animals — in your home, in your local community, and in nature. Researchers have found a correlation between attachment to a pet and higher empathy scores. Pet care can provide a consistent “job” for kids — a meaningful, daily responsibility. Even preschoolers can help fill a dog’s water bowl or give fish a pinch of food.

If you don’t have a pet, talk about ways you can support animals in the wild — such as picking up trash at a local park, putting up a bird feeder, or planting flowers that attract bees and butterflies. Take a walk around your neighborhood and make a list of all the animal and insect life that share your home. What can you observe about where they live, what they eat, and how they behave?