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Empathy Scale for Children (ESC) [TEST ITEMS AND INSTRUCTIONS]

Presentation · April 2014

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Aysel Köksal Akyol Durmuş Aslan

Ankara University Cukurova University
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 Empathy Scale for Children
(ESC)
TEST ITEMS AND INSTRUCTIONS
PROF.DR. AYSEL KÖKSAL AKYOL
ANKARA UNIVERSITY
Department of Child Development
koksalaysel@gmail.com

ASSOC.PROF.DR DURMUŞ ASLAN

ÇUKUROVA UNIVERSITY
Department of Early Childhood Education
durmaslan@gmail.com

Köksal Akyol A., & Aslan D. (2014). The development of Empathy Scale for Children (ESC). In
Yasar, M., Ozgun O. & Galbraith J. (Eds), Contemporary Perspectives and Research on Early
Childhood Education (pp.113-123). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Publishing.
 SCALE ITEMS AND APPLICATION OF TEST

Empathy Scale for Children (ESC) is a tool which is developed for measuring children’s empathic skills. The scale consists of
picture cards about four basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) and cards about facial expressions.

ESC is applied to children through individual interviews. During the interview, first the researcher talks with the child about
emotions (like what makes him/her happy or sad). Then the researcher puts the cards about facial expressions (the cards between
1 and 8) on the table and talks with the child about them. Next, it is passed to main scale items (the pictures between 9 and 20). In
each picture, main character’s facial expression hasn’t been drawn. The researcher explains the event in the each picture shortly
and asked to child how the main character would feel in that case. If the child has difficulty in verbal response, additional pictures
are pointed out (pictures between 1 and 8) and it is asked the child to show which of them he/she would feel. If the child says (or
shows) the main character’s emotion correctly, s/he gets “1” point, if no s/he gets “0” point.

Picture 9: “The child is celebrating her birthday with her friends. How do you think she feels?”

Picture 10: “This child’s favorite toy has broken. How do you think she feels?

Picture 11: “This child’s friend is pulling her hair. How do you think she feels?

Picture 12: “This dog is barking to the child aggressively. How do you think he feels?

Picture 13: “This child’s mother is telling his favorite story. How do you think he feels?

Picture 14: “This child’s friends are playing her favorite game. But they don’t want to accept her to the game. How do you think she
feels?

Picture 15: “The friend of this child is tearing off his picture intentionally. How do you think he feels?
Picture 16: “This child’s ball is off the road. When he is about to take the ball, he sees a car coming at him speedily. How do you
think he feels?”

Picture 17: “One of the child’s friends has bought a gift for him. How do you think he feels?”

Picture 18: “This child likes eating ice-cream. But she has dropped the ice-cream on the ground. How do you think she feels?”

Picture 19: “One of the child’s friends wants to take his toy by force. How do you think he feels?”

Picture 20: “This child is about to falling of the bike. How do you think she feels?”
The cards about facial expressions

(Between 1 and 8)
 TEST ITEMS

(Between 9 and 20)

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