As suggested in my feedback on what I had done so far, I looked into how children react to grief and whether this is different from adults. I found that children don’t necessarily go through the five stages of grief, although they can display all the stages, and they can be seen as being happy and playing as though they have “gotten over it”. Below is a list of ‘normal’ emotional responses to grief from children.

1) Sadness

2) Anger

3) Irritableness

4) Guilt and self-reproach

5) Anxiety, insecurity and fear

6) Abandoned

7) Worried

8) Loneliness

9) Yearning

10) Helplessness and powerlessness

11) Shock

12) Numbness

13) Emancipation

14) Relief

15) Turmoil

Additionally there are physical responses although I will not use these in my book.

There are 6 thought patterns that can occur in children during grief. These are:

– denial

– confusion

– thoughts about the deceased

– sense of presence of the deceased

– difficulty concentrating

– nightmares

http://www.childgrief.org/howtohelp.htm