TIPS FOR INTERACTING WITH CHILDREN EXPERIENCING GRIEF
- Consider your own personal grief history and how it influence your biases and perspectives on loss.
- Each child’s grief is as unique to him or her as the their relationship to the deceased.
- Don’t assume that if a child is not talking about that it hasn’t affected them.
- Show them affection and let them know they are loved and will be taken care of.
- Consider that children may not feel exactly the same as adults do.
- Prepare a child for what to expect in a new situation.
- Respect the wave-like quality of a child’s capacity to mourn.
- Allow children to be involved in a memorial ritual.
- Be mindful of specific dates/holidays.
- Grieving children can handle the truth.
- Respond to inquiries honestly and lovingly.
- Model expressions of your own feeling and memories.
- Allow the child time to grieve, and then more time.
- Children feel less alone when they can be with other children who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling.
- Offer constructive outlets for the range of emotions related to grief.
- Tolerate some acting out IF it is not harming self or others.
- Know that short-tern regressive behaviors are normal.
- Access support groups.
- Allow and encourage the search for meaningful questions.
- Remember, IT IS OKAY TO NOT HAVE ANSWERS
Activities to Do with A Grieving Child To Open Up Their Expression:
- Art
- Dance
- Read a book
- Watch a movie
- Go on a nature walk
Camps for Children:
Camp for Kids with a Parent Facing Cancer: www.campkesem.org
Camp for Grieving Children (Featured in Emmy-winning HBO documentary, One Last Hug) www.camperin.org
