Childrens Understanding of Death

Question: Discuss about theChildren's Understanding of Death. Answer: Introduction The development of toddlers and infants between the age of 2 to 6 years is associated with biological, psychological and social changes. In preschoolers, there is absence of logical thinking and they are easily confused by surface appearance and causal relationships. They are ego-centric and cannot understand the perspective of others (Shaffer Kipp, 2013).Young toddlers often are intrigued by the concept of death and they tend to react differently when they encounter sickness or witness some peoples death in their life. Some may engage in intense grieving process while some do not understand the concepts of death at all. Hence, their lack of clarity regarding death the concept of death might affect their ability to process death event and cope with their feelings (Bates Kearney, 2015). The essay looks into the understanding and common response to death at the age of 2 to 6 years. The topic will be supported by three themes to analyze childrens understanding of death. The thesis sta tement for the research is that childrens comprehension of death depends on their experience and developmental level. This essay will provide evidence to support this stance. The article by Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, (2013) gives the evidence regarding the influence of developmental and age factors in infants understanding of the death process. The four principle concept involved in childrens concept of death includes irreversibility, inevitability, non-functionality and causality. Children are underprepared to deal with death because they do not have enough life experience to understand that death is inevitable for all living things. Hence, they fail to understand that death cannot be reversed. Some children between the age of 5-9 years even have the perception that inevitability of death is only for older adults and it does not affect children (How Do Children Comprehend the Concept of Death?, 2017). Childrens death concept also changes with age with older children having greater understanding about death than small children. The components of irreversibility, finality and inevitability are understood by the age of 6-7 years whereas full understanding about all concepts is attained by the age of 10 years (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). The grieving process of children also different in different age group and childrens psychological emotions affects the process. The first phase involves understanding the characteristics of death and the ability to recognize how it occurs. This is followed by the accepting the emotion that comes with the realization that death is a reality. Children in different age group and different personality characteristics may move through this age group in a different manner. In the final phase, the child reorganizes their sense of identity and relationships with others in the environment (Bugge et al., 2014). As the emphasis is particularly on children between 2-6 years of age, it is seen that the grief response of children between 2-4 years very brief but intense (Feldman, 2014). At this stage of development, they are learning to trust people surrounding them and separation from them leads to regressive behavior in them. Similarly when a child grows older and reaches early childhood stage (4-7 years), they express their feelings of grief through play rather than verbally conveying it to others. However, it is also possible that some children may remain unaffected by death as they fail to acknowledge this pain reality (Klass, Silverman, Nickman, 2014). A childs grieving process related to death progresses as they mature. In the period between birth to six months, a baby may not respond to loss of someone, however a baby of six months may experience feelings of separation as part of bereavement (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). For example if a 6 months babys mother dies, the baby displays signs of separation from the mother. They become aware that the person is not present in front of them and they become anxious. They realize very soon that the person cuddling them now is not the deceased person. By the age of 6 months to 2 years, if the primary caregiver of the baby dies, they display their emotions by crying loudly with tears. They may lose interest in feeding and interacting properly. For instance a two years old child may actively start seeking the deceased person and a toddler may always go to the place where their primary caregiver used to live. Furthermore, by the age of 2-6 years, children may not understand that death i s irreversible. For example a 4 year old child may question when her grandmother will return back. Hence, even when a young child is told that her grandmother has dies, the child expects them to come back in the future (Gutirrez et al., 2014). Therefore, they do not understand the finality of death and they may ask silly questions like what will happen if grandmother feels hungry inside the coffin? or Will uncle be hurt if people burn him?. These examples depict that children between 2-6 years struggle with the abstract concepts related to death and they may engage in omnipotence thinking (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). Research by Nolbris, Enskr, Hellstrm, (2014) tried to investigate whether personal experience of death affects how young children perceive death. It showed that children who had direct encounter with death through the death of their love ones in families had better understand about death. Furthermore, children who suffers continued illness and are often hospitalized may have a better understanding about the element of irreversibility and causation. They have better understanding mainly because their exposure to illness and bad health condition makes them aware of the biological nature of death. They might also become aware by observing other patients during hospital stay. Some children may also have advanced idea about death due to the diagnosis of chronic illness in his/her siblings. Such child may need support from family members to overcome the grief process (Bugge et al., 2014). The children between 2-6 years also develop the concept of death by exposure to fantasy elements like television or movies depiction of death. Cartoons, movies and televisions are filled with images of death and this surrounding factor influences their death concept (A Child's Concept of Death - Health Encyclopedia - University of Rochester Medical Center, 2017). Furthermore, their thinking is not abstract and they do not understand the causality of death. Childrens reasoning about the afterlife increases not only with cognitive development and biological development, but also by supernatural explanation of death hidden in different cultural context of families (Lee et al., 2014). For example an adult fear about death may be transferred to their children and the cultural beliefs in families affect their coping and grieving process. The cultural beliefs in families may help the child deal with death or it may even make them develop feelings of fear and anxiety. A child with terminal i llness may even struggle with illness and fear about death. Parents of such children must realize that children of all ages respond to death in unique ways and they need to explain about death in such a way that their fear is eliminated (Jalmsell et al., 2015). Van der Geest et al., (2015) tried to further explore the concept about death and how parents talks about death with children incurable disease. This study was important because it would another dimension to understand the factors that affects childrens understanding of the death process. Parents with terminally ill child are often challenged by issue of how to talk about death with their children. The study tried to investigate the consequences of parents talk about death with a child with incurable cancer. Several parents tried not to talk about death because of their childs personality. For example some parent reported that their child is too timid to talk about death while some felt that their child is too young to discuss about death. Some also chose not to talk due to their childs perceived awareness about death due to their deteriorating health condition. In case of parents who chose to discuss the topic, they used symbolic stories or religious stories to make the concept of d eath clear to their child. However, in case of discussion about death, the ultimate result was positive. It helped minimize childrens fear about death and helped the child to cope with illness by being closer with his/her parent (Van der Geest et al., 2015). Hence, the study gave the depiction that talking about death with children should be tailored according to individual context and parents should take the decision in the best interest of their children. Another research study assessed the childrens understanding of death through a childrens questionnaire and childrens drawing (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). Drawing was included in analysis as it might help children to express about death experiences in their families which they might not express verbally. It may also give detail about childrens past experience to become aware of their understanding of death. It would form an effective retrieval source to organize childrens death concept report (Perry, 2014). The study hypothesis was that questionnaire and drawings would help in gaining mature death concept from older children compared to younger children with no death experience. Participants in the study include children with death experience and those with no death experience. The three content specific strategies observed from drawing included biological death, psychological death and metaphysical death. The biological death drawing included moment of deaths like funeral or d ead person, the psychological death drawing depicted anxieties with death and feeling of emptiness and metaphysical death included drawings on near-death experience or personification of death (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). In the same way, the questionnaire included for the above study included questions on human and animal death. All the questions covered different themes of death like finality, irreversibility, universality, causality and old age. As hypothesized, the research findings showed that the concept of death significantly differed in children who had death experience compared to those who did not had any death experience. Children with personal death experience drew scenes of death events like funeral and grave whereas children with no death experience drew scenes of violent death. The results mainly displayed biological concept of death. The concept of psychological and metaphysical elements was missing in both the groups. This understanding about childrens concept of death and the manner in which they acquire this knowledge can help a lot in counseling young children who encounter death and suffer from grief and depression (Bonoti, Leondari, Mastora, 2013). The essay on the childrens understanding of death summarized several concepts that affect development of death concepts in young children. The analysis of different research studies related to the topic gave the indication that childrens comprehension of death differs based on their personal experience with death and based on child developmental levels. It introduced the main components of death such as causality, irreversibility, finality and universality. The study gave the indication that a child acquires this component of death in different age groups. Another result of the study was that children familiarity with the reality of death is also influenced by cultural context, parents interaction and childs personality. If parents focus on disclosing the concept of death in a positive manner, then it might help them to overcome grief and develop coping skills when they lose their loved ones. However, inappropriate way of disclosure might also significantly affects child response to grief. Considering these challenges in grief response by a child due to death of a family member, it is recommended that parents or other care giver of child break the news about death to children in a caring manner. Parents and family members should always remain close to the child and comfort them. Support and counseling groups might also help provide adequate support to children who are affected by death of their loved ones. The first example of support service is the National Child Traumatic Stress Network that helps children to recover from traumatic events (National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Child Trauma Home, 2017). Similarly Better Health Channel and My aged care support service provides support to bereaved individual and family members (Grief support services, 2017). They will help to provide support to those children who have experienced traumatic events. 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