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Resources
Resources
SeeSaw General Booklet
DownloadSeeSaw Grandparents Booklet
DownloadSeeSaw Under Fives Booklet
DownloadDownloadable Creative Resources
These are some of a favourite creative resources to use with bereaved children. Click on the image to download the PDF instructions.
Suggested Readings
Emotional problems
A volcano in my tummy: helping children to handle anger
by Eliane Whitehouse and Warwick Pudney
Presents a clear and effective approach to helping children and adults alike understand and deal constructively with children’s anger. The book offers engaging, well-organized activities which help to overcome the fear of children’s anger which many adult care-givers experience. By carefully distinguishing between anger the feeling, and violence the behaviour, this accessible little book, primarily created for ages 6-13, helps to create an awareness of anger, enabling children to relate creatively and harmoniously at critical stages in their development.
Double-dip feelings: stories to help children understand emotions
by Barbara Cain
Designed to help children understand emotions, and shows that it is possible to experience two contrasting feelings at the same time, such as feeling both proud and scared on the first day of school. Questions are raised throughout the book to help them cope with the tugs and pulls of emotions that simultaneous and dissimilar feelings can produce.
The huge bag of worries
by Virginia Ironside
A compelling picture book which can be used as a spring board into what worries children today. The lively, comic-style pictures and the general nature of the worries make this excellent for any number of problems. The message of the book is clear—find someone who will listen and talk about your worries.
What to do when you dread your bed: a kid’s guide to overcoming problems with sleep
by Dawn Huebner
Guides children and their parents through the cognitive-behavioural techniques used to treat problems with sleep. Fears, busy brains, restless bodies, and overdependence on parents are all tackled as children gain the skills they need for more peaceful nights. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to fall asleep and stay asleep – like magic!
Causes of death
The family has been informed: supporting bereaved children and young people from military families
by Helen Mackinnon
This booklet offers information that aims to be helpful to families and professionals who come into contact with children and young people from military families who have been bereaved. It provides insight into the nature of military life and death to relatives, friends and schools who are less familiar with the unique challenges facing bereaved military families.
Beyond the rough rock: supporting a child who has been bereaved through suicide
by Julie A. Stokes
Explaining to a child that someone has died by suicide is possibly one of the most difficult situations that a parent or carer might ever face. This booklet offers practical advice for families in the immediate days and weeks when suicide has been the cause of death. The booklet includes child-friendly activities for you to do as a family as you begin to make sense of what has happened and start to look at ways in which your family can learn to cope.
Hope beyond the headlines: supporting a child bereaved through murder or manslaughter
by Di Stubbs
Practical advice for families in the immediate days, weeks and months following a murder. It is written for both parents and professionals, giving them the confidence to involve children and young people in understanding and managing the particular difficulties and complexities that so often surround a death by murder or manslaughter. The booklet includes child-friendly activities to do with children or as a family to help them to make sense of what has happened and to begin to express their grief.
Someone has died suddenly
by Mary Williams
This book looks at sudden death and uses simple language and colourful pictures to communicate important messages and encourage discussion and honesty between children and their carers.
Pre-school
A place in my heart
by Annette Aubrey
Andrew’s grandad has died, and Andrew is feeling very sad and confused. Explore with a child the difficult issue of bereavement as Andrew talks about his feelings with his mum and dad. From the ‘Understanding…’ series, these illustrated storybooks allow small children to get to grips with upsetting and bewildering situations that might be affecting them or people around them.
I miss you: a first look at death
by Pat Thomas
This reassuring picture book explores the difficult issue of death for young children. Children’s feelings and questions about this sensitive subject are looked at in a simple but realistic way. This book helps them to understand their loss and come to terms with it.
Adolescents
You just don't understand: supporting bereaved teenagers
by Helen Mackinnon, Winston’s Wish publication
The transition from childhood to adulthood can be a challenging process at the best of times. This booklet aims to help you understand what is normal adolescent development, and to recognise the additional problems teenagers may face if someone important dies during these years.
Young people, death and the unfairness of everything
by Nick Luxmoore
Without opportunities to talk, young people’s anxieties about death can manifest themselves in all sorts of self-destructive and socially-destructive ways. In this book, Nick Luxmoore explores the problems that arise when death is not openly discussed with young people and offers advice about how best to allay concerns without having to pretend that there are easy answers.