Thesis on "Talking to Children About Death"

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This group's research is of particular interest, because they worked with children who had experienced disasters. Working with children who had survived disasters is actually how this group of specialists came together in their work. They belong to an organization known as the Liverpool Children's Project. Disasters are something that the researchers have experienced in their own lives, ranging from Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombings, to mining disasters. In more recent years, we have all experienced the disasters surrounding terrorism. It is often easy to forget that as we go through these experiences as adults, the children in our lives are experiencing the affects of the tragedies in our lives with us. This sometimes requires the skills of specialists whose work and job it is to help children experience those events with as little trauma as possible, and to find ways to resolve the trauma that they have experienced.

Helping Bereaved Children: A Handbook for Practitioners, by Boyd Webb is a resource for the practitioner who, like the first group of experts mentioned, find themselves in new or uncharted territory when working with children. Webb helps distinguish the levels of grief that children experience, including "complicated grief," such as the death of a sibling, or suicide in the family. These are unique instances of loss, and ones that many therapists seldom see in their practices. A resource such as this book represents is a useful tool for practitioners.

Webb helps the therapist working with children to understand their own needs as therapists working under these very emotional conditions with the most vulnerable segment of our society. He explores the "self-care" for the therapist, which is something that most therapists would not be focused on. However, if the therapist is not of a good emotional and mental place in their day, it is not a good day to attempt working with children whose lives have suffered emotional trauma.

There is a language that is useful to employ when working with children who have experienced trauma and death. Glenda Fredman (1997) explores the use of language and vocabulary in initiating dialog with children who have experienced death through trauma, or grief through natural loss of someone close to them in their lives. In her book, Death Talk: Conversations with Children and Families, Fredman provides into "when to talk, and when not to," and creating stories around memories of the loved ones lost. This book approaches the subject with a gentle and concerned perspective, and leads the reader through the process of exploring the avenues to travel down when working with children and their families.

In Helping Children Live with Death and Loss, authors and social researcher Dinah Seibert, Judy C. Drolet, and Joyce V. Fetro (2003) explore the ways in which the therapist must help the children and their families move beyond the event of death, and to turn the death and loss into memories that can help keep the person or loved one in the mind of the child without the trauma or pain of death. In other words, it becomes a life experience and not just a death experience. It comes from an understanding through the research of these authors as to what memories a child needs in order to cope with death, and what do they need to ask about the process of death and dying. Often times the questions that children have on their minds are not questions that adults are ready to answer, and this book helps prepare the adult reader for that moment in their lives.

In the book Children and Death: Perspectives from Birth through Adolescence, authors and editors John E. Scholwalter, Penelope Buschman, Paul R. Patterson, Austin Kutscher, Margot Tallmer, Robert G. Stevenson, and Jeanne D. Cole explore the stories and thoughts of children and adolescents as they pertain to death, dying, and loss. It is an amazing and interesting work, because it explores the ideas and thoughts of children and adolescents on the subject, from their perspectives. The book presents children's concepts of God, death, and life after death. These are incredible experiences and stories that have been collected by these editors and authors, and it is actually a book that is unlike most others on subject.

Jurgen Moltmann's (1998) book, Is there Life after Death, while not focusing specifically on children, helps to bring out the discussion that is essential when working with children. Without the conversation of life after death, it would be difficult to counsel children. This is a book that parents and professionals would be able to benefit from having read when they are approaching children who have experienced loss and death.

The 2003 journal article by Elizabeth D. Muller and Charles L. Thompson, the Experience of Grief after Bereavement: A Phenomenological Study with Implications for Mental Health Counseling reviews the body of literature that exists on the subject of bereavement and counseling, and includes those works that pertain to children. The study is reliant upon the existing of body of work, and incorporates no new qualitative or quantitative study groups.

Mary Louise Branch and Sabrina a. Brinson (2007) have written a journal article that addresses children's experiences with loss and attachment. This is an interesting article, because so much has been written on the subject of attachment styles, that a perspective involving attachment and loss is useful to the researcher whose work involves children. This journal article does not provide any studies that include quantitative or qualitative groups.

Ann Graham (2004) wrote a journal article that equates life and loss to seasons, and she discusses change, loss, and grief from the perspective of a natural life cycle. This journal article does not provide study group data originating with the author, nor does it provide quantitative or qualitative group study analysis.

The breadth of professional and peer reviewed work that is available on the subject of children, death, dying, and loss is extensive, but there is a need for more direct study research that produces quantitative and qualitative data for use in training children's therapists, and for understanding the best practices in doing that kind of work.

Works Cited

http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=113438929

Barnard, Paul, Ian Morland, and Julie Nagy. Children, Bereavement, and Trauma: Nurturing Resilience. London: Jessica Kingsley, 1999. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=113438929.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5024491224

Branch, Mary Louise, and Sabrina a. Brinson. "Gone but Not Forgotten: Children's Experiences with Attachment, Separation, and Loss." Reclaiming Children and Youth 16.3 (2007): 41+. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5024491224.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27546085

Cole, Jeanne D., et al., eds. Children and Death: Perspectives from Birth through Adolescence. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1987. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27546085.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11091054

Fredman, Glenda. Death Talk: Conversations with Children and Families. London: Karnac Books, 1997. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11091054.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006987525

Graham, Anne. "Life Is like the Seasons: Responding to Change, Loss, and Grief through a Peer-Based Education Program." Childhood Education 80.6 (2004): 317+. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006987525.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35011229

Moltmann, Jurgen. Is There Life after Death?. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1998. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35011229.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001977553

Muller, Elizabeth D., and Charles L. Thompson. "The Experience of Grief after Bereavement: A Phenomenological Study with Implications for Mental Health Counseling." Journal of Mental Health Counseling 25.3 (2003): 183+. Questia. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001977553.

A www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006444121

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