Empathy apps

Empathy involves our ability to feel compassion for others and view the world from their perspective. It is one of the essential aspects of emotional intelligence (EQ) that allows us to understand how other people feel.

Empathy is a quality that we can learn and develop. With that in mind and the fact that kids love technology, a great way to build empathy in kids from an early age is by using interactive empathy apps.

What are Empathy Apps?

Empathy apps are an excellent way to improve a child’s emotion recognition and emotional expression – qualities that are at the core of empathy. For young children, understanding and learning empathy can be very challenging. Also, children on autism spectrum have difficulties recognizing and understanding others’ emotional expressions.

Empathy apps can be a fantastic way to teach children with autism spectrum disorders and other neurodiversity about emotions and empathy.

Through animated characters, animals, and real-life situations, emotional apps introduce children to the world of emotions, helping them recognize and understand various emotions through facial expression, body language, and spoken and written language.

What Can You Learn from Empathy?

Empathy is about an awareness and understanding of other people’s emotions. It involves two aspects: a cognitive aspect and an emotional aspect.

Recognizing how other people feel (a cognitive aspect) leads to emotional resonance – feeling compassion and concern for others. Being empathetic means that you can identify other people’s feelings, acknowledge them, and feel them.

In other words, a cognitive aspect of empathy involves the capacity to understand the emotions of other people rationally, although you don’t necessarily have to share these emotions physiologically.

Simultaneously, an emotional or affective component of empathy involves an automatic instinct to respond appropriately to another person’s emotions.

By learning about empathy, young kids improve their social skills in general. Empathy can teach them positive behavior, coping strategies, problem-solving, and many other essential skills.

Research shows that empathy can be practiced and developed. Also, studies show that experiencing empathy leads to even greater compassion. Neuroscience research demonstrated that kindness leads to more helping behaviors –when we witness other people’s experiences, we start feeling and behaving as if we experienced the same.

With the advances of technology, apps provide an excellent tool for teaching children about empathy from the earliest age.

What Causes Lack of Empathy?

Lack of empathy is present in individuals with personality disorders such as antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy, narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and people with autistic spectrum disorder and alexithymia.

Individuals with personality disorders cannot recognize facial expressions, cannot experience sympathy and remorse, and show shallow affect.

Some people feel too angry or hurt, which may block their capacity to feel compassion and sympathy for those around them. Instead of concern, they feel numb and cold.

Some people may avoid empathy to protect themselves from painful feelings of others’ suffering. Or they fear intimacy and vulnerability and protect themselves by being emotionally distant.

However, in healthy persons, empathy is a teachable skill that can be improved with effort and time.

Why Should You Use Apps for Empathy?

Using apps for empathy is a great way to boost your child’s emotional intelligence and teach them empathy. Age-appropriate empathy apps can motivate kids to cultivate a sense of curiosity and explore what it would feel like to walk in somebody else’s shoes.

Empathy apps for kids introduce the world of feelings through characters and familiar situations, helping them push themselves outside their comfort zone little by little.

Why Should You Use Apps for Empathy?

Since technology has become an inevitable part of our lives, we need to find ways to use it in an enriching way. Using empirically tested apps for empathy is an excellent way to learn about emotions and compassion from the earliest age.

Empathy apps for children can be easily played at home and on the go throughout the day.

How can Apps Help with Empathy Development?

There is a growing concern among parents and psychologists that children are less compassionate and thoughtful these days. Empathy apps can help kids develop essential social and emotional skills such as:

• emotional recognition
• kindness
• compassion
• empathy
• viewing things from others’ perspectives

As children today spend a lot of time using digital media, parents can tap into educational apps to teach their children vital EQ skills such as self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and relationship management.

There are many educational games and apps for empathy that can help young children learn and recognize compassion. Empathy games appeal to all age groups and kids can play them on different devices.

To increase the value of these apps, play along with your little ones and discuss the content they are learning through empathy applications.

Once they learn empathy skills through games and apps, kids will be able to apply them in face-to-face interactions at home, at school, and in other social settings.

Which Apps Assist Requiring Empathy Ability?

Newly developed technologies can improve empathy by helping kids recognize emotions in animated characters, identify with the character, and help them overcome challenges. These are essential aspects of compassion and empathy that apps for empathy promote.

Empathy applications and games allow kids to pretend to be different characters and invent play rules. This can pretend play can teach kids to become independent and responsible, to share, negotiate, and take turns. They foster cooperation and collaboration, enabling young kids to recognize other people’s feelings and learn how to respond to them positively.

Apps for kids allow children to be “somebody else” for a while, allowing them to take on different perspectives and develop empathy.

What Should You Know Before Using Empathy Application?

Before selecting empathy apps for kids, learn more about emotional intelligence and empathy. Understanding the importance of compassion can help develop this essential social and emotional skill in your child.

Explore high-quality early math apps for children out there and preview them first. Make sure an app is interactive and engaging. Choose empathy apps for kids that provide educational value and help your child learn and develop.

What are the Best MyFirstApps Empathy Apps?

To boost your child’s empathy, use some of the best MyFirstApps empathy apps such as:

• Our Feelings (for ages three-plus)
• Basic Sounds for Toddlers (for kind one year of age and older)
• Baby Chef (for ages one and a half plus)

These apps help kids understand feelings by recognizing and interacting with others (parents and caregivers who play these games with the kids).