Sympathy vs. Empathy vs. Compassion

Empathy, sympathy, and compassion play a huge role in social-emotional learning. It can be tricky to explain the difference to some students. Let’s take a look at some kid-friendly ways to explain these terms to students.

Sympathy is understanding and feeling sorry for someone else’s pain or difficulties. It means you care about their feelings and want to support and comfort them. Sympathy is about being kind and showing that you are there for others, even if you haven’t experienced exactly what they are going through. It’s an important quality that helps us be good friends and show that we care about the well-being of others.

On the other hand, empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand how they are feeling. 

Compassion is when you have a big heart and want to help others when they feel sad, hurt, or in need. It’s like being a super caring and kind friend who wants to make others feel better and happier.

If you are looking for a poster to remind your students of the differences between these terms, you have come to the right place! Teacher Starter has developed a poster highlighting these important social-emotional learning areas.

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This resource prints as a PDF. Please use the dropdown menu to choose between the full-color or black-and-white version of this poster.

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