Walk in My Shoes: Understanding Differences and Learning About Empathy

The activity “Walk in My Shoes” let the children experience what other children is facing with the differences that they have. The children were given scenarios like “Walking with One Foot” where they walked or hopped on one foot to the other side of the classroom and reached an object on the floor. Another scenario is “Closed Eyes/Blindfolded” where children looked for an object with their eyes closed or covered. “Mute” game where they relayed a message from one friend to another and the last activity is the “Dyslexia Simulation” where they were given a piece of paper with scrambled words and were asked to read it.

After the activities that they had, they were asked to share what they felt while doing it. Did they face any challenges in doing the task? And Why is it easy and why not? Most of them actually shared that it is very hard for them to do.

Prior to the main activity, the teacher asked them what they can do and they listed down everything they can. The teacher explained that there were actually some children who are not able to do what they can do. A very touching movie was played for the children where they also voiced out their concerns for the character in the story.

After they had done the “Walk in My Shoes” activity, they were asked about what they can do to help those children with disabilities. On a strip of coloured paper, they wrote their pledges which states one thing that they will do to help Children with Disability and shared it to their class afterwards. Out of the strips of paper, they interconnected it forming like a chain to make their “Kindness Chain” and hang inside their classroom for them to see and be always reminded of their pledges.