Watch out for causal connections of personal wishes or actions to the death of a loved one. This is called magical thinking. If this occurs, it is helpful to distinguish between expression of thought or feeling and the causing of the actual physical event of death. Reassure the child that it is normal at times to feel angry or upset with the people we love, and that has nothing to do with the death of the person we love. Younger children may require assistance to remember the deceased.
Photographs can be useful as well as remembering important dates relevant to the deceased.
Religious faith can have a very positive benefit for children as well as adults. Important comforts of reassurance of reunion with the deceased, resolution of meaning, and everlasting love and support are available through religious faith. Consequently religious faith can be quite important to children as well as to adults. In communicating with the child, however, it is important to introduce religious perspectives only after the child understands the immediate implications of death. Otherwise, problems of understanding regarding finality and irreversibility may become a significant problem.