Efforts to help children deal with death have been influenced by the widely held assumption that children cannot fully comprehend the concept of death, and that even if they do, it may be harmful for them to be exposed to information about death. Consequently, professionals and parents have felt it best to shield young children from the experience of death. Children often are not told how or why a person died, are not allowed to participate in family functions surrounding the death, and are encouraged to deny the finality of death. All children think about death, and concerns and questions about death are a normal part of growing up. How children react when a death occurs depends to a large extent on how parents and other family members react to the death and how they respond to the children's questions and expressions of feeling.
Death is experienced as separation.
Experienced as separation and absence of mobility. Notices that dead things disappear. Believes death is temporary, caused by some external force from which rescue is possible. Understands the physical limitations of death. It is final and irreversible.