As we have commented in other articles empathy is a key element of emotional intelligence, the link between oneself and others. One of the interesting things about empathy is that it can be learned, and it is never too late to do it! Here we give you some proposals and activities that can be done to strengthen empathy in adolescents.
During adolescence, being empathetic is a crucial step in the personal development, because it improves social skills and the ability to care for others. Different studies have shown that lack of empathy is a risk factor for the subsequent development of antisocial behaviors or aggressive.
Dynamics for working as a family adolescent empathy
We recommend some dynamics to work on empathy as a family. It is important that you show the adolescent that can count on you when you need emotional and physical support. Those teens whose parents are compassionate and help them cope with negative emotions by guiding them toward problem solving are more likely to be more empathetic.
In everyday life there are situations in which empathy is necessary. For example, watching a movie or a television series if there are scenes in which there is bullying or cruel behavior. Must ask the adolescent how the victim might feel. With this we will be helping to recognize the emotional needs of other people, exchanging ideas about different ways to help.
Identifying that what another person feels is similar to what we feel as individuals helps us feel empathy for that person. Teach your children to discover what you have in common with others. The use we make of social networks can help the adolescent, in particular those who feel like a minority. Meeting other young people with whom they share these "oddities" helps social integration, and fosters community empathy.
The imagined person activity, for a group of adolescents
The objective of this activity, which we have called the imagined person is to get into the skin of another. In addition, expressiveness and the identification of emotions are worked on. This exercise can be done in the classroom, or in any other opportunity in which there is a group of adolescents, a maximum of 10 boys and girls. We will need blank pages and pens to carry it out.
Every adolescent on the back of the page write the data of an imaginary person. He names him, if he is a man or a woman, age, where he comes from, his family, the language he speaks, what he does, what he likes to do in his free time ... On the other hand, he will draw the face of this person they imagine.
Two volunteers come out to the center of the group, they exchange the pages and with these in the face they make a dialogue between the characters. Each one will have to respond with the data that he / she is reading about the imagined person. After the activity, a dialogue is proposed with those who have played the character, if they liked feeling in the shoes of another or another, if it was easy to answer…. The whole group can go out to the center to play the imagined person.
Working on empathy with adolescents with the learning by doing methodology
When working on empathy with adolescents, you have to do it by doing, For this we can use technology, this is the safest and most attractive way to reach them. Virtual reality, for example, can help the adolescent to experience the sensations of another person or context.
Theater is a very effective tool to create, because theater is empathy. Playing a role forces you to abandon the self and create an other. The interesting thing is that each one makes the exercise of abandoning his own thought to act as the other would. The theater of the oppressed helps adolescents to feel more free, learn not to judge and find themselves.
These are just some of the guidelines and activities that can help you and work on empathy with adolescents, but the most basic is: practice your own empathy and maintain an empathetic attitude yourself.