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Welcome to Children, Teens, and Grief
Welcome to Children, Teens, and Grief.
Children grieve. For a long time, adults believed that young children were too little to understand death or to mourn, and so children were often sent away during funerals, told comforting stories that confused them, or simply not told at all. We now know that children of every age feel loss deeply, and that what they understand, what they fear, and what they need change as they grow.
In this course you will learn how children’s understanding of death develops, from infancy through the teen years, and why young children so often believe they caused a death. You will learn how to tell a child that someone has died, how to include children in funerals and rituals, how to help them after a sudden or violent death, and how to support dying children, their brothers and sisters, and their parents. You will learn to do all of this for families of every faith and for families with no religious faith, who need honest words that do not depend on heaven.
This is a 300-level course, built on research and primary sources, with a research paper at the end. It is also a tender subject. If memories of your own childhood losses come up, be gentle with yourself, and reach out for support if you need it. In the United States, anyone in crisis can call or text 988.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | Five completed 200-level courses. This is a 300-level course. Death, Dying, and Bereavement (312) is strongly recommended before or alongside this course. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in six to eight weeks, studying about six hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one research paper of 2,500 to 3,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (research paper, 2,500 to 3,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies, J. William Worden (Guilford Press, 1996)
- Never Too Young to Know: Death in Children’s Lives, Phyllis R. Silverman (Oxford University Press, 2000)
- The Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools, David J. Schonfeld and Marcia Quackenbush (second edition, Brookes Publishing, 2021)
These books are available from libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks. Many free resources named in the lessons, such as those of the Dougy Center, the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, and the Coalition to Support Grieving Students, are available online.
What you will study
Module 1: How Children Understand Death Module 2: The Youngest Mourners: Birth to Age Five Module 3: School-Age Children: Six to Twelve Module 4: Teenagers and Grief Module 5: Telling a Child and Including Them Module 6: Sudden, Violent, and Suicide Deaths Module 7: When a Parent, a Sibling, or a Child Dies Module 8: Helping Over Time
Book report choices
Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson; Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, Hope Edelman
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted. Never use a real child’s name or identifying details in your written work.