Hospice Foundation of America offers numerous resources regarding children, adolescents, and loss. Children do not grieve. Children of all ages grieve. The child s development and experiences affects the grieving process. The death of a loved one is the only major loss children and adolescents experience.
Young people experience a variety of losses.
These include losses of pets, separations caused by divorce or relocations, losses of friends and relationships, as well as losses due to illness or death. All of these losses generate grief. Children should be shielded from loss. It s impossible to protect children from loss. Adults can teach ways of adapting to loss by including young people in the grieving process.