Human beings are prewired to be empathetic, at least to some extent: Research shows that when one infant in a nursery cries, those who cry along tend to grow up to have the most empathy. (So take heart the next time your baby starts wailing the minute your preschooler breaks down in tears.) Still, 3- and 4-year-olds, as any parent knows, are not models of selfless, generous behavior. "They're not developmentally capable of understanding empathy," says Jane Nelsen, a child therapist and co-author of Positive Discipline for Preschoolers. "But this doesn't mean you shouldn't keep teaching it to them. If your preschooler hits his sister, for instance, you can say, 'It hurts when you hit people. Here's how you touch nicely. How does that feel?' At some point your words will kick in — just expect it to take a while."
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/r...ing/65717.html
We've had some problems with dd acting out and being less than nice to the cat. I figured (especially after reading this article) that we aren't the only parents with this problem.
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/r...ing/65717.html
We've had some problems with dd acting out and being less than nice to the cat. I figured (especially after reading this article) that we aren't the only parents with this problem.
