Conversation Starters & Toolkits

After a Loved One Dies – How Children Grieve

By: David J. Schonfeld, MD , Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, CHES


A child and her mother.The death of a loved one is difficult for everyone. Children feel the loss strongly. Parents are coping with their own grief. If a parent dies, the surviving parent faces the new responsibility of caring for the children alone. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends are affected, too.

Because children and teens understand death differently from adults, their reactions may be different. Some of the things they say or do may seem puzzling.

This guide reviews how children grieve and how parents and other caring adults can help them understand death better. It offers suggestions for helping children cope. These suggestions are not meant to rush children through their grief or turn them into adults before their time. Rather, they will give them an understanding they can use now, as children, to grieve in a healthy and meaningful way.

This 21 page booklet clearly explains how adults can support children that are grieving.

Download Booklet

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