Throughout the year, the preschool team will suggest resources that parents may find helpful or interesting. We try to focus on topics that relate directly to our young learners. As the year goes on you will find that we suggest books, articles, websites, TED talks ... really anything that may be useful. They may focus on child development, how children learn, specifics about curriculum, new research on the brain, parenting resources, or any other potentially helpful area.
One good book is, "Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World" by Michele Borba, Dr. (amazon).
Dr. Borba has spent years studying empathy and its decrease in our society. While this may sound depressing, Dr. Borba shares a framework that helps us all develop children that are resilient, happy, kind, successful, and courageous. She demonstrates how perspective taking is a critical skill for our children to develop and how it directly benefits them.
Empathy can be taught and improved like any other personality trait or skill. It just takes practice. This book shares studies that have demonstrated empathy in incredibly young children and ways that we adults often teach children to have less concern for others. Each chapter shares research and advice on how to work with children. The advice is divided by age, which makes it very easy to find a tool that may work for a high schooler, an elementary student, a toddler, and even an infant. This organization makes it an easy quick resource to grab as well as a book to read cover to cover.
In addition to empathy the book discusses other areas that adults can help children develop emotion based skills. There is a very useful chapter on self regulation and helping children have better control over their emotions. Self-regulation is a key skill in helping children socially as well as academically.
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