Children’s Responses to Grief – 7 to 12 Years Old
Children react to death in different ways depending on the age they are. Here are some ideas as to how they may be feeling and how you can tailor your behaviour to help them through this difficult time:
- Understand that death happens to everyone
- Can becomes snappy and aggressive
- Struggle to talk about their feelings
- May become clingy and have separation anxiety
- Is looking for honest answers to their questions
- May think the deceased becomes an angel or ghost
- May be scared of the dark
- Wants to know what happens to the body
- May become isolated and withdrawn from friends
- Understands that death is final
- May stop sleeping as well as normal
- May not want to go to school
- May stop eating as well as normal
- May worry that they are to blame for the death
- Finds everything a lot to take in and quite confusing
- May start being defiant and antisocial
- Worries about their own well-being
- Wants to know why people are sad
- Want to know they didnt cause the death
- May wet the bed
- Questions they ask may be blunt
- Dreams about the loved one that has passed