Encouraging Empathy in Pupils

Image of Anna Bateman
Anna Bateman Mental health expert and former DfE adviser
Guide

Here is a guide to help create the conditions in which empathy can thrive.

Studies show that emotional empathy is developed in children as early as age 2, and where they have good attachment experiences and modelled behaviour, a child will develop a good level of empathy. Cognitive empathy develops slightly later on when children begin to understand that another person’s way of seeing the world may be different to their own.

In school, the environment, people, values, systems and culture all help determine how pupils develop empathy. Here is a guide to help create the conditions in which empathy can thrive.