Helping Children Cope with Frightening News

 From Child Mind Institute

"The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas makes us feel sad, angry, and powerless. Through these tragedies, our children need us to provide structure, support, and hope to help them develop healthy coping skills. Here are some important articles from our Family Resource Center: How to Talk to Kids About School Shootings Helping Children Cope With Frightening News In addition, Jamie Howard, PhD, director of the Trauma and Resilience Service at the Child Mind Institute was on today’s edition of CBS Mornings to give practical advice for helping kids. Dr. Howard and I later appeared on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna to discuss talking with our children about terrible news. But I want to tell you that this feeling of powerlessness around gun violence doesn’t just affect us. It affects our kids. In 2019, in a piece on childmind.org called “Children Hear the Message of the Gun," I wrote about the endless stream of shootings: "What must our children think? They must think it’s open season. They must think we are lying when we say we want to keep them safe. Our inaction makes battlegrounds out of their high schools, colleges, elementary schools, and churches. The concert venues, shopping centers, and downtowns that are the rhythm and the backbone of everyday life in America are battlefields, too.” Nothing has changed today. I hope you will join me in thinking about this: when we say that children are our priority, what do our actions tell them about where our priorities really lie? Harold S. Koplewicz, MD President and Medical Director Child Mind Institute"