How Do We Tell the Children? Third Edition: A Step-By-Step Guide for Helping Children Two to Teen Cope When Someone Dies

Now in its third edition, this classic guide is expanded and updated to feature new material on dealing with trauma and devastation, addressing violence in schools, helping grandparents cope as caregivers, and an enlarged quick-reference "Crisis Section" with scripts, answers, and messages for young ones. Dr. Daniel Schaefer, working with child psychologists and trauma experts, and drawing on more than three decades of experience with families in crisis, has put together a practical guide for anyone who works or lives with children-parents, caregivers, counselors, or teachers-for dealing with children's inevitable questions about loss and change, life and death. He informs adults how to help young ones cope with the trauma of loss and offers time-tested, valuable advice on how to explain and console children in a language that they can understand. The book includes sections on what children think about death; explaining death to children; fear, confusion, and sadness; grief and healing; the funeral and saying good-bye; talking about AIDS; and talking to children with mental illness.

Dan Schaefer, Ph.D., has served as a guest faculty member at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and the graduate schools at New York, Adelphi, Hofstra, and Rutgers universities. He has consulted with both military and police survivors. For more than thirty years he managed a family-owned funeral home that served families for four generations. "How do we tell the children?" was the question most often asked by grieving parents. His invaluable past experience and current work as President of Peak Performance Strategies have contributed to this practical and wise new edition. He lives in Roslyn, NY.

Christine Lyons is a journalist in New York City.

Dan Schaefer, Ph.D., has served as a guest faculty member at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and the graduate schools at New York, Adelphi, Hofstra, and Rutgers universities. He has consulted with both military and police survivors. For more than thirty years he managed a family-owned funeral home that served families for four generations. "How do we tell the children?" was the question most often asked by grieving parents. His invaluable past experience and current work as President of Peak Performance Strategies have contributed to this practical and wise new edition. He lives in Roslyn, NY.

Christine Lyons is a journalist in New York City.