How Death Impacts a Childs Development

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How Death impacts a Child’s Development Life Span Development How Death impacts a Child’s Development Everyone has to live through it at one time or another, but there is no one way to grieve over the death of a loved one. The majority of children experience death at a young age. This to them is a new experience that they have to deal with. Just like any other experience, this can be terrifying for them. Losing someone you love through death is one of the most traumatic experiences of anyone's life, especially if it is a parent. The way a parent's death affects a child depends on many different things including age, personality, strengths, and how the person died. No matter how it affects a person one thing is always true, the loss of a parent can change you forever. The impact that death has on children is tremendous. Children at a young age may or may not understand what is going on around them. The affects on a child’s social and emotional development can be profound and will alter their lives forever. According to Patterson, “the age and stage of development of a child at the time of his or her parent’s death will strongly influence the ways in which the child reacts and adapts to the loss. An understanding of the child’s emotional and cognitive development can enable caregivers and professionals to determine how best to communicate about death with the particular child, to understand and empathize with the child’s experience and guide the child through the grieving and healing process”(2010). All children experience different things at different times, that’s way it is important to comprehend what can happen at the different stages. Anxiety and depression might be experienced by some if not all children who have lost a loved one. About 3 years ago I went to a family friends funeral, there was one little boy maybe around the age of 5 who kept

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