Essay On Death In Children

The cessation of life is something every single person on Earth will experience at one time or another. This realization of death can occur at any time. However, typically this realization happens in the early years of life. When children become aware of death there are four components that they must relate to: irreversibility, finality, inevitability, and causality. These four components may not be recognized all at one time, but it is not until all four of these factors are realized that the child has a full understanding of death. Researchers analyzed a child’s understanding of death and how it shows the four crucial stages of understanding, what parents and pediatricians believe a child knows about death, how adults should discuss death with children, as well as how to help a grieving child. The four components that children must grasp before they truly understand death are, irreversibility, finality, inevitability, and causality. The first, irreversibility, …show more content…
Whether this experience is a grandparent, parent, relative, friend, or pet dying. However, much too often these experiences are glossed over by adults and parents to shield the child from the cruel reality of death. While these perfect teaching opportunities pass, many times the parent is overtaken by their own grief and the child’s needs are just afterthoughts. Parents, overwhelmed with their own grief after the loss of someone close to them, typically assume that their children are too young to understand what has happened. This is false, it has been noted that children, even as young as infants are impacted by death due to their parent’s emotions and the change in their usual schedule (Karns, 2008). Protecting children from the concept of death is very unlikely, prohibiting open discussions from the children will only hinder the child in the long run. Leaving the child feeling as if death is meant to be an unspoken