According to NPR, a recent study has found that 140,000 U.S. children lost a parent or grandparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, 1 in 14 children lost a parent before turning 18.
Understandably, children may experience heightened grief, anger, or confusion with the loss of a loved one. Sadly, teachers and educational therapists may have trouble recognizing the attention and support that children need to recuperate while grieving.
Creating a Safe Classroom Culture For Grieving Students
Educators can respond to grieving students by providing compassion, empathy, understanding, and healthy resources to help navigate difficult emotions. Specialized educational professionals have numerous opportunities to offer support by teaching students about coping mechanisms, working with them to explore their feelings and needs, or connecting them to school psychologists and social workers for individualized consolations.
It’s also beneficial for educators to be aware of and understand common reactions to grief, such as increased compulsivity and frustration, relationship issues, somatic complaints, and self-stimulatory behaviors. Symptoms of acute grief–or distress immediately after the child loses a loved one–include decreased appetite, social dissociation, and erratic sleep schedules.
Symptoms of prolonged grief, which continues for at least six months after the loved one’s death, include self-harm, substance use or dependence, lashing out in class and yelling at others, and ongoing issues with eating, sleeping, and schoolwork.
By establishing a classroom culture of vulnerability and safety, educators can provide a valuable space for children to honestly verbalize how they feel and eventually discover how to heal. Here are six therapy staffing expert-approved ways that educators can support a grieving student or an entire classroom in coping with–and overcoming–the challenges of facing death and grief.
1. Make A Scrapbook
Scrapbooking is a fantastic way to portray a person’s memory while creating a keepsake that children can view repeatedly. To assemble a memorial album or scrapbook, ask students to bring in mementos such as ticket stubs, photographs, handwritten notes, and other small items with personal significance. Throughout the scrapbook’s pages, write about memories, meaningful experiences, and anecdotes that remind you of the deceased.
2. Write a Letter
Writing a letter to the deceased can be incredibly cathartic for students who are still processing the loss of a loved one. If your student does not want to keep the letter, they can rip it up, burn it, or throw it away. Writing activities can help children use words to describe their emotions and reflect thoughtfully about the deceased through responding to prompts, such as:
- What do I miss most about this person?
- What issues in our relationship are still unresolved?
- What was left unsaid between us?
- What do I regret saying or doing?
- What have I learned from this person?
- What is my favorite memory of this person?
3. Create Body Maps
Body maps are an interactive activity that helps children to identify and visualize their emotions and see how their mental states can cause physical tension, stress, or pain in the body. Ask students to lie down on a large sheet of paper, and trace the shape of their bodies with a pen or marker. Afterward, instruct children to draw, mark up, and write on the sheet to identify where and how they can sense their emotions.
4. Attend Group Counseling
When grieving the loss of a loved one, students might feel isolated or misunderstood by others, so it often helps to be reminded that they aren’t alone. Group counseling provides a safe, supportive space for children to relate to each other while sharing vulnerably about their struggles. Due to the prevalence of deaths since the pandemic began, students might be surprised by how many other students are in the support group.
5. Read Books
Explaining complex concepts like death, grief, and illness to children can be challenging–even for the most experienced educational professional. However, learning about grief through fictional characters can be beneficial when working with children. Books on death and grieving can be valuable resources to introduce students to concepts like death, illness, and the stages of grief, which may be too abstract for young children to understand.
6. Express Condolences
Teachers or educational therapists can show their support by reaching out to the grieving child’s family with a call, a condolence card, flowers, baked goods, or even a home visit. Such a simple gesture of concern can help students sense your support and prepare for the difficult adjustment of returning to school after a death.
In closing, we can’t reiterate the significance of educators’ role in helping children heal from the loss of a loved one. By utilizing these time-tested strategies, students can become more equipped to face–and eventually overcome–the challenges of accepting death and grief.
Teachers and educational therapists, what advice would you offer educational professionals who have worked with grieving students? We would love to hear your thoughts. Share in the comments below!
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