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Therapeutic Activities to Help Children Cope With Grief

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommends that relatives spend time with grieving children as much as possible, and show them it's acceptable to express their feelings openly. Incorporating therapeutic activities into that time can promote the healing process.

  1. Helping Children With Grief

    • Grief is a process that everyone experiences and expresses differently. To provide the best possible support to a grieving child, keep in mind that her reactions are normal, whatever they may be, and that not all therapeutic activities will suit her individual needs. Answer her questions honestly to help her understand the loss. By refraining from judgment and being supportive when she expresses anger, sadness and guilt, you reinforce that it's healthy and acceptable to work through grief.

    Therapeutic Art Activities

    • Art is especially helpful for children who have difficulty expressing their feelings verbally. Some activities help children understand emotions, whereas others help the child cope and accept the loss. A piece of paper with blank faces, each labeled with a different emotion, promotes understanding. The caregiver and child discuss each emotion, and the child then draws an expression within the blank face to match it. Drawing a "before and after" picture of the family, with and without the deceased person, and sharing the details of it with an adult can also help him express his feelings about the loss. Making "worry beads" by sculpting balls of clay and stringing them together soothes anxiety and anger and provides a memento.

    Family Activities

    • Family activities can illustrate healthy methods of coping with grief, as well as the various feelings it causes. Ryan's Heart, an organization for grieving families, suggests the family flag and heart-break pot activities. A family flag honors the deceased person and shows the family's progress through the grieving process. Everyone can gather scraps of fabric for one person to sew into a flag, and each person adds personal embellishments to it. The child can create a separate flag, too, with paper, markers and macaroni. For the heart-break pot, break a large clay pot into pieces and give a piece to each person. After everyone writes about being alone on the inner side of the piece and sources of support on the outer side, the family glues the pot back together.

    Therapeutic Group Activities

    • Group activities help a child see that she is not alone in her grief. This can further encourage her to express herself. The Center for Grieving Children suggests an activity in which group members sit in a circle, sharing any feelings of guilt they have over a person's death. After asking the children if they have had similar feelings and inviting them to share those feelings, each person says, "It's not your fault," to the person next to him. Everyone then tears up phone books while repeating, "It's not my fault." Putting the phone book remains into garbage bags afterward symbolizes the removal of guilt.

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