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TUESDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthScoutNews) -- When your children come home from school tonight, how do you explain the horrific events in New York City and Washington, D.C.?
Experts say the best thing to do is answer their questions honestly and calmly, but give no more information than what they ask for.
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"This is obviously a catastrophic event that is going to affect and reach lots of kids. It's important that adults acknowledge that this is a very serious disaster that's occurred and not try to falsely minimize that," said Dr. James MacIntyre, an associate professor of psychiatry at Albany Medical College in New York. "Kids will have a lot of emotions about this."
Although many adults themselves will have a hard time coping with shock and heartache, children --- particularly those who are in kindergarten or younger --- are much less equipped to deal with those emotions, MacIntyre said. Previous disasters, including the Oklahoma City bombing, have directly affected the emotional states of kids.
Children of all ages will take many of their cues about how they feel from adults, he said.
"When they start seeing adults on the news crying, people they know having a hard time, kids will be very unnerved," MacIntyre added. "The parents should try to get themselves together about how they're going to talk about this. If parents have lost friends or relatives or are very concerned, that's probably not the best time to try to explain these things to kids."
When explanations do come, they should include onlythe information that is needed, added Elizabeth Vermilyea, a trauma specialist and training director with The Sidran Traumatic Stress Foundation in Baltimore.
"They ought to feel free to tell the children what happened, the facts, and then elicit what the child wants [to know]: ' What are you thinking about? Is something worrying you about this?' " she said. "Sometimes, we give a whole lot of information because we don't know what to say. We may say more than a child is concerned about."
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