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When Kids Are Grieving

Addressing Grief and Loss in School

First Edition
By: Donna M. Burns

Foreword by Kenneth J. Doka

Help students deal with grief and loss in appropriate, healthy ways.

This primer helps educators understand and respond appropriately to the extraordinary challenges that children and adolescents face when dealing with loss and grief. Featuring charts, activities, case studies, and reproducible handouts, this sourcebook offers strategies for helping students affected by various forms of loss—including divorce, death, violence, and chronic illness—and illustrates how to:

Respond to students' unique expressions of grief
Help students handle the emotions associated with loss
Facilitate effective interventions
Determine when to refer a child to a specialist
Respect cultural attitudes toward loss and grief

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412974905
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2010
Page Count: 128
Publication date: January 07, 2013

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This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

"Burns provides an excellent, user-friendly guide to help school personnel navigate the tricky waters of children's grief. This is a welcome resource for school professionals."
—Steve Hoff, Licensed Psychologist
Great Barrington, MA

"The author's sensitivity and understanding of cultural variations in reaction to loss provide a much needed perspective to this important topic."
—Heta-Maria Miller, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
The College of Saint Rose

Help students deal with grief and loss in appropriate, healthy ways.

Most students experience some form of loss in their lives, and the resulting grief can profoundly affect their academic performance, emotional stability, and social interactions. Serving both as a resource and workbook, this reader-friendly primer helps educators and school counselors understand and respond to the extraordinary challenges that children and adolescents may face when dealing with loss and grief.

Featuring helpful charts, quotes, activities, case studies, reproducible handouts, and resources from national organizations, this sourcebook offers strategies to help students affected by divorce; death of a parent, relative, friend, or pet; violence; chronic illness; and more. The author examines grief experiences at different developmental levels and illustrates how to:

Respond appropriately to expressions of grief that are unique to children and adolescents
Help students handle emotions associated with loss
Promote communication and facilitate effective interventions
Determine when to refer a child to a specialist
Respect cultural attitudes toward loss and grief

This resource underscores the importance of understanding how children experience grief and loss and helps educators assist in ways that promote students' emotional health and recovery.

Key features

Features strategies educators can use to help children and adolescents deal with a variety of situations that involve grief and loss
Each chapter includes charts, quotes, activities, reproducible handouts
Contains a comprehensive annotated resource directory and includes Web sites of national organizations that provide assistance in dealing with grief and loss

Author(s)

Donna M. Burns

Donna Burns is an educational psychologist who specializes in developmental psychology with an emphasis on child and adolescent development, diversity, and issues in grief and loss. She has designed and taught undergraduate and graduate level courses on death and dying and conducts seminars and workshops for school districts and non-profit organizations. She has presented papers on various aspects of grief and loss at local, regional, and national conferences and has created a conceptual framework for understanding grief reactions. She coordinates and oversees the children’s program for the annual New York State Police Survivor’s Tribute weekend; has provided support to bereaved military family members; and has conducted training on Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) for firefighters. Burns is a member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), and the American Academy of Bereavement (AAB), where she completed an advanced bereavement facilitator training program.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Kenneth J. Doka

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

1. Am I Qualified to Work With Grieving Children?

Overview

Self-Awareness

Reflection Activity

Case Study: How Do I Tell the Children? Part I

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

2. What Are the Different Types of Losses and Grief Reactions?

Overview

Dimensions of Loss

Anticipatory Grief Versus Unanticipated Grief

PRECEDENT: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Grief Responses

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

3. What Do I Need to Know About Children's Grief?

Overview

Developmental Processes

What and How Children Grieve

Case Study: How Do I Tell the Children? Part II

Gender Differences

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

4. What Do I Need to Know About Adolescents' Grief?

Overview

Developmental Processes

Cognitive Factors

Socioemotional Factors

Family and Peers

School, Media, and Technology

How Teens Grieve

Risk-Taking Behaviors and Suicide

Suicide Prevention

Case Study: Reactions to a Classmate's Suicide

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

5. What Can I Do to Help Grieving Students?

Overview

"But I'm Not a Grief Counselor . . ."

Things You Need to Know First

Things You Can Do

Rituals and Activities

Cultural Considerations

Humor

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

6. What Are the Elements of School-Based Crisis Response?

Overview

School-Based Crisis Response

Crisis Response Team

Skills and Training

Types of Crises

School Crisis Response Plan

Crisis Postvention

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Key Terms

7. What Grief and Loss Resources Should Our School Have Available?

Overview

Naional Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Resources

Fernside and Banana Splits Resource Center Reading Lists

Online Resources

School Grief and Loss Resource Library

Thought Provokers and Issues to Consider

Chapter Reflection

Postscript

Glossary

References

Index

Reviews

"Burns provides an excellent, user-friendly guide to help school personnel navigate the tricky waters of child grief. This is a welcome resource for school professionals.”

Steve Hoff, Licensed Psychologist
Great Barrington, MA

“The author’s sensitivity and understanding of cultural variations in reactions to loss provide a much-needed perspective to this important topic.”

Heta-Maria Miller, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
The College of Saint Rose

"A significant resource for educators as they work with children and adolescents who are dealing with grief and loss.”

Marguerite G. Lodico, Professor of Educational Psychology
The College of Saint Rose

"Burns' book captures the wisdom, sensitivity, and gentle humor that she has used in a lifetime of work with grieving families. She teaches us to discover our own strengths as we mourn the people we have loved and lost.”

Katherine H. Voegtle, Professor of Educational Psychology
The College of Saint Rose

"Donna Burns has written an important book for practicing professionals, especially school professionals involved with grieving children and young adults. What is a matter for profound grieving by a young person may not be recognized among adults as an issue calling for sensitive support. And, symptoms of childhood and young adult grieving are often mistaken for other issues because young people are so often indirect in the ways they channel their grief. Burns provides an excellent resource for preventing traumatic grieving, recognizing youthful grieving as it occurs, and constructively responding to grieving youth at the individual, classroom, and school levels. This book provides an excellent knowledge base on the subject, and is also an invaluable reference volume that every educational professional would do well to own.”

Margaret M. Kirwin, Dean, Lally School of Education
The College of Saint Rose

“The best guide to dealing with loss for children that I have read. The book teaches the counselor to use life experience tools in the healing process.”

Daniel Doherty, Public Health Specialist, Disaster Preparedness Unit
NYS Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, Troy, NY

“For anyone dealing with grief, this book is priceless. It is perfectly suited for professionals as well as families dealing with this difficult issue. By far, it is one of the best books written on the subject because of the manner in which Burns compassionately combines human sensitivity with relevant theory and research. When you read this book, you never forget that first and foremost we are fragile human beings. Burns’ wisdom, insight, kindness, and love shines through on every page.”

Stephen Birchak, Author of How to Build a Child’s Character

Other Titles in: Administration & Leadership | School Counseling

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