Building emotional health and compassion in young children

It is through helping children understand that their feelings are valid, while still understanding that others feelings are as well, helps them to put feelings and desires in context, he said. Children are able to socially adapt as they are taught to recognize their emotions and put them in the proper context of getting along with others.

Thompson's main focus is on early parent-child relationships, the development of emotion and understanding and emotion regulation, early moral development and the growth of self-understanding in young children.

In attendance was President Cecil O. Samuelson, college president and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his wife, Sharon; Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, Primary general president and her husband, Jack; Sister Cheryl Esplin, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, and her husband, Max.

The lecture, as part of the Marjoris Pay Hinckley Chair in Social Work and the Social Sciences at BYU, was established to help strengthen families, encourage the development of women , develop strategies relating to the challenges of parenting and to conduct research on helping children with disabilities and challenges.

In honor of Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley, two of the five children of Marjorie Pay and Gordon B. Hinckley were in attendance, as well as three siblings of Sister Hinckley and many of her grandchildren.