Empathy is a skill many experts predict will be among the most valued by employees and employers in the automation era. These 21st century skills — like empathy and failure – can be difficult to practice, assess, and even understand. We believe the power of play can unlock these critical skills for students and workers.
Social and emotional intelligence games like The Empathy Toy encourage players to explore how empathy helps us improve an array of other universal learning skills, including critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creative thinking.
The Empathy Toy is recommended for ages 6 through to 99. The same toy pieces are actually used in kindergarten classes all the way up to boardrooms. This is quite simply because the pieces and the game are powered by the unique perspective of the players themselves.
How does it work?
The Empathy Toy is a puzzle game that can only be solved when players learn to understand each other. The empathy game adjusts the way we communicate so we can be understood on someone else’s terms, allowing us to identify gaps and assumptions in our own understanding.
Each toy piece has a different shape and texture. One player starts with a pattern of assembled puzzle pieces, and everyone works together to recreate the same puzzle-shape with the matching pieces!
But wait – there’s an unexpected challenge … players are blindfolded!
Watch The Empathy Toy on CBC’s Our Toronto
For more information and to purchase The Empathy Toy for your school, click below:
