How Do We Tell the Children?: A Step-by-Step Guide for Helping Children Two to Teen Cope When Someone Dies

This classic, step-by-step guide to talking about death, separation, and loss with children and teens features timely new material on dealing with trauma, addressing violence in schools, and helping grandparents cope as caregivers.

Many children’s lives are touched by a serious illness within their families, and some will be faced with the loss of a parent or grandparent, or the death of a sibling or beloved pet. How can adults help young people cope with these losses? How do they explain and console in language that a child can understand?

Dr. Daniel Schaefer, working with child psychologists and trauma experts, and drawing on more than three decades of experience with families in crisis, has written a practical guide for anyone who works or lives with children—parents, caregivers, counselors, or teachers—for dealing with their inevitable questions about loss and change, life and death. He provides strategies to assist children with grief and trauma and offers time-tested advice and language that children can understand.

Now in its fourth edition, this classic guide includes an expanded quick-reference Crisis Section with conversation scripts and up-to-date resources including websites, publications, and support groups.