ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some expert advice and empirical studies that specifically look at our current understanding of talking to children about death. It attempts to answer questions about how honest adults should be with children and adolescents about death and how to protect them from anxiety associated with topic. Some adults believe that children should be shielded from knowing, thinking, or talking about death because it is too painful and potentially traumatic. Death educators point to fact that children are very aware of world around them and observant of nature's life cycle. Talking about death in everyday life before a child is directly affected by death might be easier to do because there is less emotional involvement. The developmental model is described well by Koocher, who looked at age and how children respond to four questions about death. According to Koocher, children's understanding of death follows developmental lines of childhood in three stages: preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
