Supporting a Grieving Child

Supporting your child through grief is something we hope to never have to do, but here are some resources for if you ever need them.

General Tips

Our main message to grieving kids is that it is okay to feel whatever you’re feeling. They should see all the adults be sad, mad, confused, and know it’s not just kids who feel that way.

We encourage you to keep as much routine as you can to help the students, but know things will never be the same without our loved one. Be honest about how you’re feeling and be gentle. Make sure to take care of yourself, too.

Use clear language when explaining death rather than euphemisms such as “gone” or “passed on”. You might explain that the person’s body stopped working and depending on the manner of death and your child’s age and understanding explain a specific situation.

Talking about death and loss with your child

TV Shows and Movies

• Farewell, Mr. Hooper is an episode of Sesame Street where Big Bird learns that Mr. Hooper has died. He talks with the grown ups about his friend. The episode is available on youtube (no captions) or on Apple TV (with captions)
• When Families Grieve is from Sesame Workshop. The episode is available with captions on youtube and there are many accompanying articles about talking about death.
• Death of the Goldfish is an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood about an animal who dies that then makes connections to when people die. It is available on the Mr. Rogers’ website with captions.

Books

• The Goodbye Book by Todd Parr talks about feelings we have when someone dies in simple language and pictures.
• Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch is a translated work that talks about death without falling into any one belief about after death.

Articles for adults to read

• List of resources from Sesame Workshop https://sesameworkshop.org/topics/grief/
• For Spanish resources, click here or use the “en español” button on an article
• Examples of how children grieve at different ages and stages
• Questions children might ask
• How to start a conversation about someone who died
• Growing as they Grieve - a resource guide for caretakers

Take care of each other.

Love,

Stefanie