Teaching social skills doesn't have to be complicated (or boring).
It also doesn't have to consist of worksheets.
After all, hands-on learning is the best, especially when it comes to kids.
Something that involves your child engaging with their senses - and their whole body - is particularly effective.
This perspective taking activity for kids is super simple and takes only a few minutes to do. Yep, just a few minutes of your time and you can have an incredibly powerful way to show your kids how to consider and understand another person's perspective.
Perspective Taking Definition: What is it Exactly?
Perspective taking is the ability to perceive or understand another person's point of view besides your own. It's where you consider someone else's thoughts and feelings about something in order to see things from their perspective.
An Easy Perspective Taking Activity to Show Your Kids
This activity involves physically putting yourself into someone else's place so that you can see what they see from their perspective. It's like asking the question, "Do you see what I see?" Kind of like that Christmas song, Do you hear what I hear?
For this perspective taking activity, you'll need:
- 2 chairs
- 2 people
Both people sit in a chair, facing each other.
One person (person A) says, "Tell me what you see behind me," and the other person (person B) names a few objects that they can see.
If you want to be more specific and concrete, you can say, "Name two (three, four, etc.) objects you see behind me."
Now it is person B's turn to ask person A to describe or name the objects that they see behind person B.
Both people will likely respond with different objects because they are each seeing the room from their own unique position in the room. They are simply sharing what they see from their point of view and perspective. For example, person A might see a poster and a window while person B might see a stack of books on a table and a bowl of fruit.
Next, both people switch chairs.
Once seated in the opposite chair, both people can begin to see the room from the other person's perspective and position in the room. They start to see the objects that they couldn't see previously because they now sit in a different position and have a different point of view.
And that's it! I told you it was super simple.
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