Medical X-Press – Sheri Madigan, Jennifer Jenkins And Marc Jambon 
Johnny is five years old. He watches his friend Mark being teased by other kids, and then he sees Mark start to cry. As a parent, or caregiver, what do you hope Johnny will do? For many adults, the expected response would be that Johnny would show empathy. That is, he would be understanding and sensitive to Mark’s feelings, and show a compassionate response to Mark’s distress. But is it realistic to expect that young children have this capacity? Signs of empathic concern in children have been documented as young as eight to 10 months of age. Demonstrations of more obvious forms of empathy, such as showing concern when someone is crying, can be seen in toddlers. But like all aspects of development, the quantity and quality of this skill development can vary dramatically from one child to the next (more)