Teaching Your Child How To Be Kind

Written by Margaret Nemethy, PPCNP-BC

• Teach Empathy: putting themselves in someone else’s shoes
  • Ask your child to think about what they say about others before they say it
  • Ask how they would feel if someone said something mean about them
• Teach them to hold the negative opinion
  • Practice saying positive things
  • Encourage them to encourage and praise others
• Please and Thank you
  • Practice and remind them to give respectful greetings
  • Encourage good manners
• Make It Fun
  • Pretend play – make up scenarios where you can choose to be kind and encourage them to do this during your play session
• Read
  • There are lots of books about kindness such as “Kindness is Coolness”
• Reward
  • Remind them that it feels good to be kind
  • Praise them for their acts of kindness
• Model Good Behavior
  • Be sure to demonstrate kindness because children look to their parents as to how to behave toward others