A child’s experience of grief following the death of a loved one depends on a number of factors, including the age of the child, the relationship to the person who died, whether illness was involved, etc. Depending on the child’s age and developmental level, children can have difficulty fully understanding the concept of death, which stresses the need for age appropriate explanations. Children demonstrate their intense sadness in many ways, including emotional reactivity, loss of appetite, sleep difficulties and sometimes regressive behaviour, such as bed-wetting or thumb sucking. At this time, children can be assisted to work through their grief through emotional support and the use of play based therapies to promote verbal expression of their feelings and thoughts.

If you would like to discuss further how your child can manage feelings of grief and loss, please give Resilient Kids a call on (07) 3902 1973.