What would happen if we discovered that the answer to raising kind and intelligent children was not really what they were taught, but how their minds view their world?
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) aids children in developing healthy identities, dealing with their emotions, and making good decisions.
However, there is one skill that helps to implement all the other skills: perspective taking. Kids learn to see through another person’s eyes when they learn to feel genuine sympathy. They can solve problems more effectively. They manage conflicts in a manner that does not disintegrate them.
This guide reveals why perspective taking is not only another SEL skill, but the one that unlocks all the others.
What Is Perspective Taking?
Perspective taking refers to getting into another person’s shoes to know what they think and feel. It is that mental leap to the imagination to view the world as they do.
Do not mistake empathy with this. Empathy is to feel what another person feels. Perspective taking involves first knowing what an individual is thinking or feeling. That knowledge will then enable you to show genuine compassion. Putting it into the picture, perspective taking is a skill utilized every day.
Perspective taking in the workplace is when you see why your colleague did not meet a deadline or why your friend was angry over something minor. It is the key to any healthy relationship.
How Perspective Taking Powers All SEL Skills
Perspective taking connects to all five core skills that the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies as essential:
- Self-awareness means knowing yourself through other people’s eyes. When you understand how others see you, you spot your blind spots, strengths, and areas to improve.
- Self-management kicks in when someone challenges your views. Instead of getting defensive or angry, perspective taking helps you pause and consider their side first. It leads to thoughtful responses instead of emotional reactions.
- Social awareness is perspective taking on a bigger scale. You learn to read social situations, understand what’s appropriate, and recognize the resources around you in family, school, and community.
- Relationship skills depend entirely on understanding what others need and want. Good communication, active listening, and solving conflicts require seeing the other person’s point of view. Without this, teamwork becomes a fight instead of cooperation.
- Responsible decision-making means thinking about how your choices affect others. Perspective taking helps you predict the impact of your actions, making you more socially accountable.
Why This Skill Can’t Be Optional
Viewing perspective taking as an add-on is tantamount to constructing a house without a foundation. It plays a vital role in forming empathy, compassion, and authentic collaboration.
At a workplace or in a classroom, accepting diverse opinions opens a room where no one feels undervalued.
The skill also combats bullying by enabling the children to realize the effects of their words and deeds on others. Students feel a sense of community and belonging and are lower in exclusion and hostility when they can walk a mile in the shoes of a classmate.
Recent studies show the importance of this skill.
In a Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology observation revealed that perspective taking classroom programs considerably positively influenced students’ relationships, helpful behavior, and aggressiveness. The study demonstrates that such skills are teachable.
Digital citizenship has also been associated with perspective taking in new research studies. According to the Digital Wellness Lab, a report reveals that educating young individuals to put themselves in others’ shoes when using the internet is essential in combating cyberbullying and enhancing digital encounters.
This foundational skill keeps evolving with our modern world.
Teaching Perspective Taking in Real Life
You can teach this skill at any age with simple, everyday moments.
1. Examples by Age Group
- Elementary: Make children re-tell stories from the perspective of various characters. The visual aid to this abstract concept is the use of so-called perspective-taking glasses, which help young learners make it more concrete.
- Middle School: Allow students to discuss historical events in a side-by-side manner.
- High School: Review how authors reveal the sides of the characters in literature.
2. Simple Strategies for Teachers and Parents
- Put yourself in other people’s shoes: “That cashier is not feeling good today.”
- Show children how to make statements using “I” instead of putting the blame.
- Read and watch movies together and discuss alternative opinions.
- Establish routine discussions of the conflicts that happen every day and ask children to think about both sides of a conflict.
The Lasting Benefits of This One Skill
Perspective taking transforms everything, beginning at school. Children who learn it have higher grades, get along with other children, and have less trouble in the classroom.
This is the magic of later years, though. Such children come out as natural leaders, good friends, and caring partners. They find answers rather than questions. They create bridges between people who disagree.
Companies desire to employ them. Friends want to have them around. Societies require them.
One skill. Lifelong success. It is the magic of being in the position of another.
Conclusion
Perspective-taking is good etiquette and will give your child access to all their other social techniques. Once children get access to the perspective of others, they become better friends, problem solvers, and kinder human beings. It is one skill that forms the basis of it all.
So, make your child look at the world differently, and you will see them transforming it into something much better.