What should children know about death?
When someone dies that a child has known, especially someone who has been loved by him, the child should be told of that death by a person close to him. Help him to sort out the real from the pretend. Children must be told the truth. Children react to traumatic situations with such emotional overtones as disbelief, bodily distress, anger, guilt, anxiety and panicjust as adults do. Children often act out their feelings in ways that do not seem appropriate to an adult. But the child may not be able to say what he feels with words so he must depend on body language, and behavior to vent his feelings. Adults should be perceptive and understanding of what this behavior really means. Even so-called delinquent conduct may well be an acting out of grief, an expression of lifes injustice, the childs insecurity or of the confusion that often accompanies the fearful events in life. When someone loved dies, the surviving children should be allowed to express their grief. It is natural. They loved
