Talking About Death

What is death?

How Children React to Death

• Will experience grief over many years. • Will be in touch with their grief when

big events occur• Will continue even as they advance into

adulthood

Children grieve more often than adults

How Children React to Death

Because the emotion of grief is so hard for them to handle, children will often focus for a time on something pleasant.

Putting grief aside

How Children React to Death

•Children believe that death is reversible. •To a small child, one hour may be "forever".•Be consistent with your answers to question

about the reality of death.•A child needs to hear the same information

over and over again until it begins to sink in.

Preschoolers cannot comprehend the concept of "forever"

How Children React to Death

•How do you explain death?•Ask the child, "What is life?“•Explaining to children "life" as

we know it helps us to explain to children what "dead" is.

What is "dead"

Coping With The Reality Of Death

Strategies for telling a child about someone's illness

Coping With The Reality Of Death

Maintain limits and boundaries

Coping With The Reality Of Death

Preparing to visit the seriously ill

Coping With The Reality Of Death

Preparing for the grieving process

When Death Strikes

"Protecting" your child from reality

When Death Strikes

Keep it simple and honest

When Death Strikes

Should children be taken to funerals?

When Death Strikes

Talking about the funeral

When Death Strikes

Funerals and the reality of death

When Death Strikes

Children need confirmation of death

When Death Strikes

Funerals are for saying goodbye

When Death Strikes

When not to take your child to the funeral

Closure

Web Site

• Raindrop – Death Education for Children of All Ages

http://iul.com/raindrop/raindrp2.htm