Children’s grief
Resources for Children’s Grief
- KidsGrief.ca – A free online resource that helps parents support their children when someone in their life is dying or has died.
- Children and Youth Grief Network – An Ontario organization advocating for educational opportunities and support services that will benefit children and youth who are grieving the dying or the death of someone they care about
- Weathering the Storm: Parenting Grieving Children – free e-learning course
- Andrea Warnick – Andrea Warnick is a grief therapist who works primarily with children, youth and their families. Her website is a portal for a variety of educational webinars and resources devoted to understanding children’s and teen grief.
- Lighthouse: Peer support for grieving children, youth and their families – Resource library from this organization in Oakville.
- Sesame Street in Communities: Helping Kids Grieve
- The Dougy Center: The National Center for Grieving Children & Families
- National Alliance for Grieving Children
- The Sharing Place: Grief Support for Children
- This kid-friendly explanation of death will change how you think about the world
- Grief and Regrief (aka growing up with a grief monster) – An article about re-experiencing grief at each new stage of development throughout your life. Regrief most keenly impacts people who have experienced the death of a loved one at a young age
- Talking to Kids About Death and Grief: 10 Comprehensive Tips
Webinars
- Monthly KidsGrief Q&A Webinars with local children’s grief expert, Andrea Warnick
- Recordings of previous webinars can be watched here
- Out of the Shadows: Supporting Children & Youth Grieving a Substance-Related Death
Podcasts
- About that Farm Upstate – A podcast about The Sharing Place, a children’s grief centre in Salt Lake City. We hear from staff who work there as well as children attending the programs. Insightful to hear from the children themselves about their grief experiences. Note: they talk quite in depth about suicide. Starts at 40:20 and is 22 minutes in length.
- Grief Out Loud: The Dougy Center’s podcast – Hear a mix of personal stories, tips for supporting children, teens, and yourself, and interviews with bereavement professionals. Platitude and cliché-free.
- Radical Nurse Talk: Talking with Children About Serious Illness and Death
Books
- Sam and Finn by Kate Polley is about twin boys, one of whom dies before birth.
- The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers is about a little girl who one day realizes her father is gone.
- My Father’s Kite by Veronica D. Slater is about the experiences of two siblings and the logical sequence of the seasons in an effort to bridge, explore, and validate their emotions associated with the death of their father.
- Karissa and Felix by is about the death of Karissa’s grandfather and an unlikely friend who delivers a special gift of remembrance.
- A Kids Grief Journal: This journal is a social-emotional resource that provides writing prompts, strategies, a mood tracker, and emojis to help children control, manage, and monitor their emotions and feelings.
- Storybook Collection: Puddle Jumper Publishing (for children 4-10 years old)