The role of empathy in early years is a perfect finale to this series, as it is at the heart of the quality of relationships and of our responses to the uniqueness of all those whom we meet in our day-to-day EYFS practice.
Empathy is the ability to 'stand in someone else's shoes' and see things from their point of view. It is part of emotional development - how we come to understand our own and others' feelings - and is underpinned by personal development (being me) and social development (communicating and making friends).
Howard Gardner stresses that this is important because empathy is essential to the way that we live together. 'The less a person understands his own feelings, the more he will fall prey to them. The less a person understands the feelings, the responses and the behaviours of others, the more he will interact inappropriately with them and therefore fail to secure his proper place within the larger community' (Gardner, Howard, 1993, Multiple Intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books).
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