Baby empathy (^_^)

     Just like the title says, I thought babies, or children of a very young age (1 or 2 years old) does not have any specific feeling other than getting hungry and cry whenever they feel uncomfortable. Amazingly they have such reflexes immediately after they were born. Wow... subhanAllah (^o^)v

     As you guys are aware that I'm a psychology student, and last week I just finished lectures on developmental psychology (hate the assessment... haha). So, what we're doing, is about human development from infant to old age but more focused on babies and childhood development. Well, I was surprised, not sure if 'surprised' is the right word. Maybe excited.. I dunno but you know the feeling when someone tells you something and starts to make a sense and ring you a bell. You'll be like.."Ooooo...", "Aaaa...", "Okaaayy... no wonder". hehe.. :)

     Lots of things that I learned but what I'm gonna share here today is about emotion, specifically empathy. Empathy is more than sympathy. Sympathy is like you're feeling sorry for someone, while empathy is more like you feel sorry for them and you can feel it just the way that person feels and wanted to make things better. And babies younger that 1 years old, surprisingly, have this feeling. It has shown that an 11-month old who witnesses another child fall and cry will tend to put her thumb in her mouth and bury her head in her mother's lap as if she was hurt herself. SubhanAllah, amazing isn't it! Plus, it looks very cute..ahahha. No one thought them to do so. It is very innate. But the empathy that children between 0 months to 1 years old experienced is what we called as global empathy. They have problems to know whether whose distress is whose. Hehe.. Got a little bit confuse, but nonetheless, they do have empathy.

     Then, when they've grown and when they're 2 years old, they already developed what known as empathic distress, which means feeling upset for another person. They don't just feel upset, they can recognise when someone is hurting, feel bad and sorry for the person and they have this will to make the person feel better. For example, a 13-month year old might give a sad - looking adult her favourite soft toys. Or maybe even try to call her caregiver to comfort her crying playmate. Allahu akbar, subhanAllah.... This is damn beautiful :')

     The big lesson that I've learned is that humans are innately good. Children are born good. These are signs of Allah, babies who weren't thought anything, knows what empathy is. So many signs of Allah by just looking at ourselves. Allah has said in the Qur'an..