Resources

Talking to Your Kids About Tragedy

Download the Toolkit Below

In the face of unspeakable tragedy like the school shootings at Uvalde, many of us are wondering how we can explain this to our children. You are also probably wrestling with why this happened, as well, and your search for answers is part of your grief. Whatever you are feeling, it’s OK. Your feelings are not right or wrong—they simply are. Accepting your emotions and finding constructive ways to express them, bit by bit, day by day, are how you can best work through your grief. Create space for your feelings before you open the door for questions.

At Imagine, we believe in the importance of telling children the truth. Adults often believe that the truth should be hidden in order to protect their children; yet children can sense when a change has occurred. Concealing information can produce anxiety but being honest allows children to put an accurate name to the change rather than have it be an unspoken and scary unknown. In order to help facilitate this honest and difficult conversation, the Imagine staff put together a toolkit on how to talk to children about tragedy.

• Talking to Your Kids About Tragedy

If you have further questions about this, please reach out to us at 908-264-3100 to be connected to a member of our program staff.

Books 

• Imagine Recommended Book List by Age

Support Information

(Blogs, Articles, Videos)

• NY Life – A Child in Grief
• What’s Your Grief, online articles, blogs and helpful stuff related to grief
• Coalition to Support Grieving Students
• A Guidebook for Grief Awareness
• Responding to a school crisis, NCTSN
• Memory Keeping – A guide to making a memory scrapbook
• Tools to Help Build Childhood Resilience – by Sesame Street
• How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime – Excellent TED Talk by Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris

Communities

• Sesame Street Grief Resources
• Griefnet, an Internet community of persons dealing with grief, death, and major loss
• Center for Life Transition, Chatham, NJ – year-round professionally led grief support groups for adults
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
• Center for Loss and Life Transition, Colorado
• The National Alliance for Grieving Children
• Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis, Ideal for parents, teachers, and social workers working with children and families coping with loss and trauma. 
• Walk In Sunshine Charity (for parents who have lost a child)

General Information 

• ACEs too High (Survey results, about children dealing with loss)