The children's charity Barnardos has called for Government funding to extend a project which bring babies into classrooms to teach students how to talk about their emotions.
'The Roots of Empathy' initiative is currently running in 110 schools, with the charity saying central funding is needed to sustain and expand the service.
As part of the project, a baby and parent visits a classroom once every three weeks during the school year.
Those behind the programme say it has positive effects.
"When the baby comes into the room ... presenting with all of the feelings, all of the emotions, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes scared, sometimes worried... the children have a better understanding, not only of their own feelings, but other people's emotions," said Holly Howell, co-ordinator of the programme.
"Their pro-social skills go up. Things like kindness, caring, sharing and inclusion. The more challenging behaviours, like aggression or bullying or mean behaviour tends to go down, and this leads to more connected, inclusive classrooms," she said.
The project is in place in 110 schools across 21 counties and has been running since 2011.
The charity says demand for the programme has 'significantly increased' to the point that they are now are unable to take on any new schools. Currently, the charity fundraises 75 percent of the budget with the remainder coming from a philanthropic donation. It is now seeking €100,000 a year to grow the programme.
Citywest and Saggart Community National School in Dublin has been taking part since 2023.
"I think this programme should be running for every primary school child in the country,", said principal Mike Byrne.
"You see the immediate impact during the lesson, and the children are reacting to the baby. They're using their empathy in action right there. You can see them smile with the baby, get sad when the baby is sad. And that is real empathy in action. The longer-term impacts are yet to be seen. But our hope is that they're the gaining a greater understanding of others," Mr Byrne added.
"When you see the baby coming in, the class just comes right down, there's calmness," he said.
