Empathy & Compassion

Maternal Sensitivity and The Healing Power of Empathy: Tests To Measure Maternal Sensitivity

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Maternal sensitivity is defined as a mother’s ability to perceive, successfully translate, and appropriately respond to her infant’s behavioral cues. Psychologists believe that children of mothers with a high level of maternal sensitivity tend to be healthier and display higher levels of social and cognitive ability than children of mothers with low levels of maternal sensitivity. Psychologists have developed a number of tests to determine maternal sensitivity levels.

One of those tests, the Ainsworth Maternal Sesitivity Scale the was developed by developmental psychologist Mary D. Salter Ainsworth., a developmental psychologist and contemporary of John Bowlby. In Ainsworth’s view, the ability to correctly interpret an infants non-verbal communication depends upon three factors:

  • Awareness
  • Freedom from distortion
  • Empathy

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Roots of Empathy is pleased to invite you to our Third International Speaker Series and Fourth Annual International Research Symposium.


Our speaker series brings together policy-makers, academics, social services providers, educational practitioners and community citizens, to both mobilize new knowledge around relevant themes, and create space for enhancing connections between researchers and research-users and -beneficiaries.


This event will be held on March 26th, 2015 from 6:00 PM- 8:00 PM at the Royal Ontario Museum; Eaton Theatre. This year our focus is on Perspectives on Indigenous Children, Dr. Cindy Kiro. She will be sharing her expertise and recent work on the long-term health and social well-being of Māori children and youth in New Zealand, as well as the right of indigenous children to education.