UBC Press Understanding Children's Experiences of Parental Bereavement book Paperback 224 pages

Children experience death differently from adults and therefore need different kinds of help when they are bereaved. Understanding Children's Experiences of Parental Bereavement is a highly practical book for teachers and parents that explains how best to help and support a child whose parent or carer has died. The guidelines are based on the author's experience of work with child bereavement or loss, especially in schools, and of his research in this area. Project Iceberg involved adults who had been through the experience of bereavement while at school and looked retrospectively at the usefulness or otherwise of adult interventions at the time. The book includes discussion of such topics as funerals and the significance of rituals, as well as the importance of a careful transition back to school and of effective communication.As well as offering valuable insight into the impact of death on children, the author provides practical guidelines for how teachers and parents can better support children through the first stages of parental bereavement while they are at school.

John Holland is a chartered educational psychologist with a senior practitioner role in parenting with North Yorkshire County Council. John also has an independent private practice, including being a trainer and consultant in the area of children, bereavement and loss, this after previous roles in education as a special educational needs peripatetic teacher and as an infant teacher and special needs coordinator in schools.