Reviews for When Children Grieve: For Adults to Help Children Deal with Death, Divorce, Pet Loss, Moving, and Other Losses

The average rating for When Children Grieve: For Adults to Help Children Deal with Death, Divorce, Pet Loss, Moving, and Other Losses based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-02-13 00:00:00 William Owens This was a good book for a basic discussion of grieving children and the issues they need to cope with in order to healthily deal with their grief. I liked aspects of it, for helping children process their relationships and emotions. My major complaints were: 1. It is very focused on death and dying, and not applicable to wider losses and instances of grief. Although moving and divorce, for example, are covered, it is only very briefly and not with enough detail to be really helpful. I read the book partly to understand children's reactions to grief as a result of adoption/foster care, and this was not addressed at all. 2. Developmental differences in how children understand death, communicate, and cope with grief were hardly addressed at all. While the authors point out that a 4 year-old, 9 year-old, and 14 year-old write/say different things, they barely address different developmental understandings of the permanency of death, and then only in one of the final chapters of the book. Meanwhile, they often note that we respond differently to an infant's tears than to a school-aged child's tears. 3. I wished for more explicit instructions for how to support children dealing with grief. In a lengthy discussion of children processing their relationships, for example, the authors don't ever suggest how to initiate conversations with children about their loss. A sample dialogue between the parents and child would have been helpful, rather than just a list of the things that children need to deal with in order to cope with their grief. 4. As a carry-over to the above, simple techniques like having a photo of the dead person/pet or old house were not even mentioned. Essentially no rituals for support were mentioned. In fact, the only concrete method of support I could really see in the book was writing a letter to the deceased person, something not really developmentally appropriate for a young child. This would not be a book I could recommend to anyone looking for concrete ways to support a grieving child.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-08-29 00:00:00 Erik Griffin Very good, I would recommend all to read this book. At some point, all children will go through the grieving process, whether it be loss of a grandparent or other family member, loss of a pet, divorce, moving, etc. There is a natural order to grieving and knowing the process will help you to help the child in your life.