How Playing Outdoors Teaches Lessons of Empathy in Children

How Playing Outdoors Teaches Lessons of Empathy in Children

By Jason Fernandez Walter

Empathy is an important life skill, which means to feel for others and understand what they feel by putting yourself in someone's place. This improves the ability to understand and respect others. Since kids aren't naturally born to empathize, they learn it through the outdoor activities. In this post, I am going to highlight some ways that play boost empathizing skills in children.

1. Cooperation
Playing outdoors is all about teamwork, which, in turn, is linked to cooperation. While playing in a group, each member has to interact and support another in order to achieve the desired goal. Whether they are playing in a playground, classroom, or a neighborhood park, the outdoor playtime involves assistive work that directly links to empathizing skills.

2. Mind Reading
Apart from playing with preschool playground equipment or other types of equipment, some simple games such as chess or checkers help in understanding what the opponent is thinking. We do not get to learn this important life skill any other way. When a child becomes smart enough to read other's minds, this makes him empathizing as he is now capable of walking in his shoes.

3. Feel What Other Feels
The imaginative play or pretended play is all about being something you are not. When a child acts like a teacher, doctor, and architect and goes through all the processes these characters experience regularly, he gets to know what it feels like. One can only understand another person's feelings when he goes through the same process. Through pretended play, a child becomes capable of seeing life from another person's viewpoint and this makes him empathizing.

4. Caring for Other's Feelings
Children do stupid things sometimes such as hitting an animal and enjoying it. They do so due to unawareness of the fact other living beings have feelings. While playing outdoors, especially in a playground, children meet and greet peers and colleagues and cooperate with them in playing. When an unfavorable event occurs such as an injury to a fellow, he feels what his friend would be feeling and helps him cover his wounds.

Similarly, there are cats and dogs wandering around in some playgrounds. I remember I took my daughter to the shade structure in San Diego and she interacted with some cute cats there and started hitting her. I told her just like we feel hurt with injuries and wounds; animals can feel the same, too. This way, she learned to empathize and I didn't see her hitting an animal again since then.

5. Respect Other's Choice
It happens pretty often on a playground that one child wants to play a game while other wishes to experience something else. When two children of different game choices interact, they respect each other's selection. Never in my experience had I seen children fighting to force each other into playing a particular game. Every child has the freedom to play what he likes, and this, I believe, is a key to learning empathy.

6. Achieving a Common Objective
A group has a common goal and each member strives the hardest to achieve it. One day I saw some children playing puzzle together and all of them were struggling to complete it and were putting their best efforts. Upon focusing a little more, I realized they were the same children I saw a few days back fighting with each other over something. This made me realize outdoor play brings empathy to children's personality. They work together by forgetting all the differences and grudges when they have to, and this is amazing!

Creative Recreational Systems, Inc. is a   school playground manufacturer that has been ruling the   outdoor playground market for more than a decade. The company promises to bring forth one of the most reliable and quality commercial and residential playground systems to allow this generation's children to have the best opportunity to grow through play.

Article Source: How Playing Outdoors Teaches Lessons of Empathy in Children

Post a Comment

Informations From: Taun17

Previous Post Next Post
  • Striving to Be Better Will Make Us Happier

    Striving to Be Better Will Make Us Happier By Daniel Blanchard Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You must do the thing that you think you cannot do." Her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) the 32nd President of the United States of America said, "Above all try something." So, what do these quotes... Readmore

  • How to Clean a Car Battery

    How to Clean a Car Battery By Mohammed Suliman So much happens to a car in its lifetime. There will be instances where the best component will become worn or dirty because of years of driving. There could be instances where the oil got dirty and was only cleaned or purged weeks later. The battery o... Readmore

  • Holding It Together When Everything's Falling Apart

    Holding It Together When Everything's Falling Apart By Steve Wickham Leading a worship service at a nursing home should not be an especially difficult thing. It is actually an enormous privilege for those of us who have the opportunity. But one particular Sunday I was battling not only the technolo... Readmore

  • The Healing Power Of Nature

    The Healing Power Of Nature By Oliver JR Cooper A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine called Wain, and this was a deep conversation. However, this was a conversation that was far deeper than usual and I ended up thinking about what we spoke about. I won't go too far int... Readmore

  • Usability QA With Smart Home Devices

    Usability QA With Smart Home Devices By Jon Siswick-Clark Smart Home devices are still a relatively new form of tech, but the market is now being flooded as the demand for Smart Home products is increasing at an exponential rate. While many such products are innovative and of high quality, many are... Readmore

  • Structured Snippets - How To Get The Best Results

    Structured Snippets - How To Get The Best Results By Vaibhav Srivastava Now, you could use the structured snippet extension from the Google to highlight certain feature of your products and services. This extension was rolled out in August 2015, and these were aimed to offer the customers a better ... Readmore

  • LED Screen Rental Have Become The De Facto For Most Of The Digital Displays

    LED Screen Rental Have Become The De Facto For Most Of The Digital Displays By Sadanand Kasukurthi The LED screens have come a long way in the consumer market which has emerged as advertising and the promotional tool which catches the attention of the users whether being kept at a mall or retail ou... Readmore

  • The Enlightenment

    The Enlightenment By Martin Hahn The Enlightenment was both a state and a movement of mind. The term represents a stage in the intellectual heritage of Europe, it also serves to explain programs of change where important literati, inspired by the same faith in the chance of a far better world, outl... Readmore

  • Why Most Self-Taught Guitarists Do Not Become Great - Part 1

    Why Most Self-Taught Guitarists Do Not Become Great - Part 1 By T. Hess As a self-taught guitarist, you hold yourself back from becoming great by not having effective practice habits. Not having correct practice habits makes your musical progress unpredictable and slow. Most self-taught guitar play... Readmore

  • The Importance of Games in Our Daily Lives

    The Importance of Games in Our Daily Lives By Aman Tumukur Khanna Talking about games, who does not wish to play? They are an integral part of our lives and whether kids or adults, none can refrain from it. They are both a part of recreation and a great form of being physically fit and even getting... Readmore