Because of all the research that has been done into how children with higher Emotional Intelligence scores do better in ALL areas of life, I was fascinated, and scared to see the recent article that came out this month in Scientific American Mind titled, “What, Me Care?”.
The article says, “almost 75 percent of students today rate themselves as less empathetic than the average student 30 years ago.”
That’s No Bueno!
Why are children becoming less empathetic? The article cites several interesting pieces of research as to what might be causing this decline, but one link that I found fascinating was that researchers have noticed that there is a close relationship between how much a child reads and how empathetic they become.
Basically, the reason we’re raising children who care less about other people then ever before could be from a lack of reading.
This isn’t to say that reading to your child is the only thing that can affect their emotional intelligence levels. There are other proven methods for increasing empathy like using an Emotion Coaching parenting style or Attachment parenting style.
But all I know is this research motivated me to read an extra story to my son last night.
But check out the article for yourself and let me know what you think.
Here’s the link again:
“What, Me Care?”
