35 Ways to Help a Grieving Child

35 Ways to Help a Grieving Child is a guidebook with many practical suggestions for giving support to a child who has lost a family member or friend through death. Consult this book for useful advice on topics such as listening, honesty, choices, routines, remembering, emotions, grief stages and styles, modeling, moods, diet, sleep, sharing, limits and special occasions just to name a few. This tremendous resource has been developed as a result of important learning from kids being helped at The Dougy Center since 1982. Parents, teachers and other caregivers will gain valuable insight in assisting children grieve.


Publisher: The Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children Families, 2000, 2004
Format: Booklet, paperback, 46 pages
Grief: The Courageous Journey

Understanding Grief

This program introduces grief and its many possible effects. The series host, Gordon Lang, explains his counseling strategy and discusses the many forms that grief takes: anger, fear, disbelief, loneliness, depression, fear, powerlessness, guilt, and exhaustion, to name only a few.


Producer: Films for the Humanities, 1994
Format:VHS,25 minutes
Grief, Trauma, & Loss

Helping Children Cope

Learn how to talk with kids about the loss of loved ones, suicide, senseless violence, and other very painful issues.


Author: Foster Cline, M.D.
Publisher: The Love Logic Press, 1999
Format: 1 Audio cassette, 1 hour and 30 minutes
Helping Children Cope with the Loss of a Loved One

A Guide for Grownups

What can we say to a child who has just lost a parent, a sibling, or other loved one? How can we be sure to say and do the right things without adding to the child`s confusion and grief? And what if we are grieving, too? In clear, concise language, Dr. William Kroen offers comfort, compassion, and sound advice to any adult who is helping a child cope with death.

Incorporating insights and information from the respected Good Grief Program at the Judge Baker Children`s Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and weaving in anecdotes about real children and their families, he explains how children from infancy through age 18 perceive and react to death, offers suggestions on how we can respond to children at different ages and stages, and describes specific strategies we can use to guide and support them through the grieving process—from the first devastating days through commemorating the loved one and eventually moving on with life. Includes a list of recommended organizations and additional readings.


Author: William C. Kroen, Ph.D., LMHC.
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing, 1996
Format: Book, paperback, 89 pages
Helping Children Cope with Separation & Loss

A death, a divorce, a loved one's illness, or even a family move is the occasion of grief and despair for a child, and the pain can last for years. Here is compassionate, step-by-step guidance for any concerned adult who wants to help a child talk about, cope with, and recover from a loss.


Author: Claudia Jewett Jarratt
Publisher: Harvard Common Press, 1994
Format: Book, paperback, 232 pages
Separation and Loss Issues

For Foster and Birth Families

The pain of separation and loss is the universal experience of every foster child. Dr. Fahlberg talks with foster parents, foster teenagers, and adults who spent their teen years in foster care. They offer insight on how to lessen the impact of transition and strengthen a child's relationship with both foster and birth parents.

Dr. Fahlberg speaks openly, compassionately, and informatively on the importance of positive solutions. She brings the prospect of hope to families who care for abused and neglected children.


Author: Vera Fahlberg, M.D.
Publisher: Northwest Media, 2002
Format: VHS, 2 hours; Guide, 19 pages
Understanding Grief

Part of the Grief: The Courageous Journey Series

This program introduces grief and its many possible effects. The series host, Gordon Lang, explains his counseling strategy and discusses the many forms that grief takes: anger, fear, disbelief, loneliness, depression, fear, powerlessness, guilt, and exhaustion, to name only a few.


Producer: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1994
Format: VHS, 25 minutes
When Children Grieve

For Adults to Help Children Deal with Death, Divorce, Pet Loss, Moving and Other Losses

To watch a child grieve and not know what to do is one of the most difficult experiences for parents, teachers, and caregivers. And yet, there are guidelines for helping children develop a lifelong, healthy response to loss.
In When Children Grieve , John W. James and Russell Friedman of the Grief Recovery Institute, along with psychotherapist Dr. Leslie Landon Matthews, have created a cutting-edge volume that will help free children from the false idea that they "shouldn't feel bad" and will empower them with positive, effective methods of dealing with loss.

There are many life experiences that can produce feelings of grief in a child, everything from the death of a relative or a divorce, to more everyday experiences such as moving to a new neighborhood or losing a prized possession. Whatever the reason or the degree of severity, if a child you love is grieving, the guidelines examined in this thoughtful book can make a difference.

No matter what the journey involves, seeing hope return to a child makes it all worthwhile. That is the greatest gift you can give to a child you love.


Authors: John W. James and Russell Friedman, with Dr. Leslie Landon Matthews
Publisher: Quill, 2001
Format: Book, paperback, 247 pages)
Windows: Healing and Helping through Loss

Loss and change are everyday experiences that often cause pain and confusion. This series helps participants explore their own ways of coping with loss and is perfect for staff development, loss education for students, and volunteer training in hospitals.

Each video comes with discussion guidelines.
Videos in the series:
  • Healing through Loss - This video helps viewers develop skills for coping with different kinds of loss, including recognizing different kinds of losses, the factors that affect grieving, patterns of coping, stages of grief, and how to find meaning in loss. (31 min.)
     
  • Helping Others Heal through Loss - This video helps viewers communicate caring and concern to someone who is grieving, as well as provide support through the stages of grief. Observe what three people—a friend, a minister, a school counselor—say as they support a family who have lost a teenager in a car accident. (39 min.)
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