So if a parent suddenly can't come to the typical Christmas dinner or show up at some event, it is not a personal thing. It is their grief. As with all other grieving family members, acknowledge the loss. At the Family Bereavement Center in Baltimore, a resource for families who lost a child to homicide, children make memory books of the person who died, using photographs or their own drawings, describing what the person meant to them. School counselors and teachers need to be made aware that the child is grieving and to give him or her time to talk about his or her feelings.
Children grieve differently than adults and in a way that matches their developmental level.
The answer, she says, is that they need their questions answered as honestly as possible, given their developmental level. Children can benefit from bereavement groups. Death of a sibling or another child can threaten a child's security. They need reassurance that they are not going to die. They need to know why the other child died.