Empathy is the special human superpower that we use to understand our emotions and see the world through other people's eyes.

It’s not hard to agree that a world of people who understand their own emotions and the emotions of others is a world in which you’d prefer to live, empathy is our saving superpower. It’s no surprise that our ability to connect and understand each other’s point of view leads to happiness and even better health.

Though our empathy strengthens throughout life, it's never too early to start, and when we break empathy into smaller pieces, it's easy to help kids boost it. At Tinkergarten, we design the curriculum around the three types of empathy. First we strengthen, emotional empathy—the ability to recognize emotions in ourselves and others. Next, we support kids in developing cognitive empathy—the ability to take another's perspective. And finally, we engage in compassionate empathy—the ability and the habit to take action in caring support of others, our community and our planet.

In recent studies, rates of empathy in young adults have dropped, all while our world needs empathy—our human superpower—more than ever. Early, empathy-boosting experiences give us hope that this next generation of explorers will reverse that trend and be empathy superstars as they grow!