Research shows that a child's understanding of death will vary according to their age and stage of development.

In our experience, Primary School aged children can:

  • start to understand the permanency of death
  • experience anxiety about their future care, their own survival and the survival of other family members
  • feel anxiety when they are separated from their main carer
  • think that something they said or did caused the person to die
  • regress in their behaviour for a period of time
  • find it hard to concentrate at school
  • fall out with friends
  • have difficulty getting to sleep / interrupted sleep / nightmares
  • develop physical complaints e.g. tummy-aches, head-aches etc
  • have angry outbursts or cry unexpectedly  
  • only sustain their grief for short periods of time

Our experience has shown that children in this age group need:

  • reassurance
  • affection
  • age-appropriate information 
  • honest answers to their questions
  • chances to express their feelings
  • opportunities to play