How to Talk With Children About Grief & Loss

How do you talk with children about death, dying, and grief - especially when the truth feels impossible to say?

Most adults feel unprepared to tell a child that someone in their life has an advanced serious illness or has died. There's often a deep desire to protect kids from pain, avoid overwhelming them, or wanting to wait until there's a "better" time to talk. But children often already sense that something has changed.

In this episode, Jana is joined by Dougy Center colleagues Rebecca Hobbs-Lawrence, M.A. and Sat Kaur Khalsa, M.S.W. to talk about how adults can approach these conversations with honesty, clarity, and compassion.

Rebecca, Dougy Center's Pathways Program and Grief Services Coordinator, and Sat Kaur, Dougy Center's Family Services Coordinator, bring decades of professional experience supporting grieving children and families. They also share how their own childhood experiences of grief shaped the way they talk with kids about loss today.

Together, they explore how to tell children someone has died using concrete, age-appropriate language, why grief conversations don't need to happen all at once, and how adults can respond when children ask difficult questions about blame, uncertainty, and why someone died.

They also discuss how to talk with children about deaths that are often stigmatized, including suicide, homicide, and substance-related deaths, and why withholding information can sometimes create more fear and confusion.

Whether you're a parent, caregiver, clinician, educator, or simply someone supporting a those who are grieving, this conversation offers practical guidance and reassurance for navigating some of the hardest conversations.

We discuss:

• Why honesty and clear language matter when talking with kids about death
• How to explain death in concrete, age-appropriate ways
• Why grief conversations are never one-and-done
• Supporting children when someone has an advanced serious illness
• How to respond when kids blame themselves for a death
• Talking about suicide, homicide, and substance-related deaths without shame
• Why adults don't need perfect words - just presence and openness

Resources: Dougy Center's full collection of Tip Sheets and Activities: https://www.dougy.org/grief-support-resources
Grief education & training offerings: https://www.dougy.org/professionals-trainings