Using Baby Doll Play To Promote Empathy In Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Do you sing little songs to your infants or do some finger play games like Itsy Bitsy Spider or Toe Knee Chestnut? If so, you rock because you're doing your part in promoting empathy in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and the entire world will be thanking you in about 10-15 years when the smart, empathetic, and action-oriented individuals you release on the adult world begin to make their mark. Here's another activity that you can do to promote empathy. It requires only a few dolls, a good attitude about individual differences, and some imagination.

Using Dolls To Promote Empathy

When I was a Head Start Teacher, in 1987 and 88, we used “persona dolls” to teach the children about accepting individual differences in humans. We had a doll in a wheelchair, a doll with a walker, and dolls of different ethnicities.

But these persona dolls were an expensive and delicate set which isn’t a good combo for early childhood sensory learners.

We had to keep these dolls up on a high shelf and bring them down for special group times. I remember that the children didn’t care about the dolls much and felt little connection to them. They occasionally got to talk about them but they didn’t get to play with them. Remember, “Play is how young children learn.”

Today's version of persona dolls do look a lot more durable.

But not everyone can afford expensive dolls, durable or not.

Here are some of my techniques for using the concepts of persona dolls and baby doll play in daily life with young children, mixed-age groups. Have fun!

One

Begin to develop personas for the dolls you have. If your dolls don’t display diversity, I’d suggest some good family-oriented garage sales or shop around if you like.

Give each doll a back-story that can include any topic of interest. Some subjects that children are naturally curious about are, Why do people have different color skin and features? Or why do they have walkers? Or who do they live with?

Don’t overwhelm the children all at once but bring out topics as they come up, like divorce, or meeting a child with autism. Also include things they may encounter someday, like a friend with an amputated limb, or someone who looks very different from themselves in any way. Or a friend with 2 moms.

You can create basic doll personas with names and write them down on a clipboard, notebook, or app. You can use them to design social stories to help children with their problem and their self-control.

Keep them where all adults involved will be able to view them so they can easily use the same persona for the same dolls.

Two

You can bring baby dolls to circle time as long as you have one for each child to hold. Ask the children to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider or You Are My Sunshine to the dolls. Encourage them to do This Little Piggy or finger plays with them.

Ask them if their babies need a diaper change or if they need a nap. You can lead the children to put their babies to bed, using stories, lullabies, and blankies.

Here's one more activity to try. It's called bathing babies. I hope this gives you some ideas you can use today! Have fun!

Nanci J Bradley is an early childhood and family educator, author, teacher, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning, and most of all, PLAY! She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI.