Overview

This is a practical guide for teachers and parents that explains how best to help and support a child whose parent or carer has died. The guidelines are based on the author's experience of work with child bereavement or loss, especially in schools, and of his research in this area. Project Iceberg involved adults who had been through the experience of bereavement while at school and looked retrospectively at the usefulness or otherwise of adult interventions at the time. The book includes discussion of such topics as funerals and the significance of rituals, as well as the importance of a careful transition back to school and of effective communication. As well as offering an insight into the impact of death on children, the author provides practical guidelines on how teachers and parents can better support children through the first stages of parental bereavement while they are at school.

Full Product Details

9781843100164

Table of Contents

Reviews

Holland, a psychologist and researcher, offers a revised childhood model of loss around the meaning of the death of a parent. The authors examines funerals and significant rituals, especially as given meaning by children, the transition back to school, and effective communication. -- Resources Hotline ( The World Pastoral Care Center) The book is easy to read with a common-sense approach to the subject. There is a logical sequence to the chapters, the sections within these and it is equally good either to dip into or read through. It would make a good reference book for every school and be an especially useful starting point for teachers in those schools where immigrant children are trying to settle while dealing with the often unacknowledged loss and change in their lives. -- Mortality This book is an important contribution to our understanding of how children experience bereavement and how they can and should be supported, both in the short and long term. It will be a particularly valuable resource for any professional working with bereaved children, especially within the school setting, or for anyone wishing to develop a greater understanding of the area of childhood bereavement or, indeed, for any practitioner wishing to conduct their own research in this area. -- British Journal of Educational Psychology For a bereaved child, school is a paradox. It can be both a haven from the emotional intensity of home and a source of additional demands. It can provide support and generate feelings of isolation and alienation. The challenge for teachers is to recognise how to develop school as a positive resource for bereaved children, which is the main focus of Holland's study. -- Bereavement Care

Author Information

John Holland is an independent educational psychologist, trainer and consultant in the area of children, bereavement and loss, having previously worked at the Hull City Psychological Service after roles as a special educational needs teacher and previously as an infant teacher.

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