Guidelines for Helping Children Deal with the Violence They Hear about in the News

Diane Levin, who teaches at Wheelock College, Boston, prepared this list for people working with young children.

• Trusted adults have a vital role to play helping children sort out what they have heard and need to figure out. Children need to know they won't be criticized for saying the "wrong thing" or what they really think.

  Prayer service, 9/13, at Islamic Center of Greater Hartford for victims of Sept 11. Photo: Steve Miller

• Don't expect young children to understand the violence as adults do. They don't have logical causal thinking so it's hard to figure out the logic of what happened and why, or sort out what's pretend and what's real.

• When children hear about scary or disturbing things they often (but not always) relate it to themselves. This can lead them to worry about their own safety or think that what happened is their fault.

• Children use their own prior experiences to try to figure out what they hear. This can lead to their joining unconnected events--'Joe goes on planes, did he blow up too?'--and linking the entertainment violence they see on TV and real violence.

• Try to use what the children know and understand as the starting point for deciding how to respond. One good way to start when a child raises the topic is to ask, "What have you heard about that?" If you want to initiate the conversation, try asking, "Has anyone heard anything about a plane crash? Tell me about it."

• Answer questions and clear up misconceptions that worry or confuse but do not try to give all the information you know about the news story. Don't worry about children getting "right answers" or if all children don't agree.

• Be on the look out for signs of stress in children. Changes in behavior such as regression, increased aggression or withdrawal, trouble sleeping, trouble with separation or transitions are all signs that additional support are needed.

• Try to recognize and support young children's efforts to work out what they have heard in their play, drawing, writing and other activities. As children do this over time they can regain a sense of mastery and control as well as resolution.

• Help children learn alternatives to the lessons about violence and biased ideas about other peoples or countries the event may teach. Talk about nonviolent alternatives for solving conflicts in the news. Point to positive experiences with people different from themselves and to nonviolent problem solving from their own lives.

• Work closely with parents. Keep them informed about your efforts to work with their children on violent news events and help them devise ways to limit the amount of violence (entertainment and real) their children see in the media.

Adapted from: Levin, Diane E. (1998). Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture. Ch. 7: "When Pretend Meets Real--Responding to Violence in the News." (Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998). Resources on helping children deal with the terrorism tragedy, including materials on the web, books, and articles, are available on request.

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