How to help bereaved children understand grief | Winston's Wish | Giving Hope to Grieving Children

Understanding Grief

Grief is not a series of predictable stages that a child simply completes. A “grief ball” and pots of different sizes can help explain how bereavement may feel:

• At first, grief may feel so large that it fills a child’s whole life, leaving little room for anything else.
• Grief does not necessarily disappear over time. Instead, life can grow around it. New experiences, relationships, interests, and milestones can create more room to carry the loss.
• A child’s love and thoughts about the person who died can remain, even as life changes.
• Grief may surge when something triggers a memory, such as a familiar smell, birthday, or holiday. This does not mean progress has been lost. Over time, a child may find it easier to return to a place where grief feels more manageable.

The analogy can be a simple way to help children express or understand what bereavement can feel like.

Presenter and source: Emma, Winston’s Wish. The video is from Talk Grief / Child Bereavement UK.