[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-596174-105":59,"doc-detail-596174-en":129},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":122,"head_meta":124,"extra_data":126,"updated_unix":128},105,"en","addressing-grief-in-the-classroom-a-complicated-equalizer","Addressing Grief in the Classroom: A Complicated Equalizer","","Grief acts as a complex personal response to loss that can be easily silenced by fear and misunderstanding, especially in school settings. When teachers lack death-education preparation, grief may disrupt children’s learning and mental health by activating stress physiology and weakening emotion regulation. Anxiety, depression, and related concerns can emerge without structured practices. Effective support requires bereavement-trained educators, death education for all students, emotion-regulation routines, and counsellors trained in play-based therapies to help children express feelings safely.",{"@graph":69,"@context":121},[70,84,104],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/addressing-grief-in-the-classroom-a-complicated-equalizer/596174/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":98,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":99,"interactionStatistic":100},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/addressing-grief-in-the-classroom-a-complicated-equalizer/596174.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Guten tag","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":101,"interactionType":102,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":103},"ViewAction",{"@type":105,"mainEntity":106},"FAQPage",[107,113,117],{"name":108,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":110},"Why can grief be misunderstood or kept quiet in classrooms?","Question",{"text":111,"@type":112},"Fear and lack of death education can prevent grief from being openly understood or addressed, leading teachers and peers to respond in ways that don’t support healthy processing.","Answer",{"name":114,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":115},"How does unprocessed grief affect children’s learning and mental health?",{"text":116,"@type":112},"Unhealthy grief processing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, influencing a child’s ability to regulate emotions and potentially contributing to anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.",{"name":118,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":119},"What supports do schools need to help grieving children?",{"text":120,"@type":112},"Schools need bereavement-trained teachers, integrated death education, emotion-regulation practices, and access to counsellors trained in play-based therapies to provide a safe, supportive environment for children to process feelings.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":123,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":125,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":127,"site_id":62},596174,1792105408,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":130},{"doc_id":127,"user_id":131,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":138,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":139,"faqs":140,"seo_title":141,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":142,"read_time":46},687212321768,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/a0010bdbe886d2fe77?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1789897067658708522","SPECIAL INTEREST ARTICLE  \nAddressing Grief in the Classroom: A Complicated Equalizer  \nKristyn Eftoda  \nAbstract  \nGrief is a complicated equalizer and a personal reaction to loss. Losing a loved one is a universal experience, but fear keeps grief quiet and misunderstood. When teachers not trained in death education, it can affect children’s grieving process. When grief is not processed in a healthy way, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, affecting a child’s learning and mental health. Anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns can present themselves without the help of practices that support emotion regulation and personal grief expression. Schools need bereavement-trained teachers, death education, emotion regulation practices, and counsellors trained in play-based therapies to support grieving children.  \nAlmost everyone will encounter some type of bereavement and grief in their lifetime. Bereavement is undergoing the loss or death of a loved one (Brown & Goodman, 2005), while grief is the natural, internalized reaction one has to a loss (Costelloe et al. , 2020) . A child’s conceptual understanding about death can result in misconceptions that may be incorrect, unhelpful, and detrimental to the grieving process (Stylianou & Zembylas, 2018) . Therefore, it is important that teachers have training and support in bereavement and loss, provide death education to all students, and foster a sense of community in the classroom that provides grief support from peers. Grief can interfere with children’s ability to learn emotion regulation skills and to practice self-control, directly affecting their mental health and emotional wellbeing (McLafferty, 2020) . Classroom-based programs or practices that teach and model emotion regulation, such as The Zones of Regulation, mindfulness, and yoga, can prepare students for a range of grief emotions and provide grieving students with vocabulary and strategies to cope. About 20-25% of bereaved adolescents develop mental health problems, including internalizing disorders such as depression, following the death of a parent (Stikkelbroek et al. , 2016, p. 55) . Establishing a connection with a school or divisional counsellor who can counsel with age-appropriate play-based therapy is necessary in supporting these grieving students beyond the classroom. Bereavement and grief training for teachers, teaching and practicing emotion regulation in the classroom, and providing individual play-based or music therapy in the school will provide a secure, supportive place for grieving children to process all their feelings (The Dougy Center, n.d. ) .  \nAddressing Grief Misconceptions and Death Anxiety:  \nTeacher Training, Death Education, & Peer Support  \nIt is estimated that 5-15% of children will bereave a significant loved one before 18 years of age (Chen & Panebianco, 2018, p. 152) . Therefore, it is likely that all teachers will provide care for at least one grieving child in their career (Carrington, 2019) . Teachers who intentionally create a significant protective support by listening and responding with empathy can be a positive force (The Dougy Center, n.d. ), especially if the child’s caregiver is depressed or emotionally unavailable (Stikkelbroeket al. , 2016) . Unfortunately, due to curriculum pressures and a lack of training in bereavement and loss, teachers often take a reactive rather than proactive approach to grief (Costelloe et al. , 2020) . For teachers to feel comfortable and confident supporting grieving students, they need direct purposeful training on grief and the grieving process. Death education integrated into the curriculum, with a focus on peer support, is an essential component that normalizes death and provides a classroom of support to grieving children. Grief is learned through observation and can be interpreted individually  \n(Heath & Cole, 2012) . Schools can have a monumental effect on grieving children, by providing welltrained teachers with th","cbCaiginKkVjU2At","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiginKkVjU2At","pdf",244870,"English","# Addressing Grief in the Classroom: A Complicated Equalizer\n## Grief misconceptions and death anxiety\n## Teacher training, death education, and peer support\n## Supporting children across ages and conceptual understanding","[{\"question\":\"Why can grief be misunderstood or kept quiet in classrooms?\",\"answer\":\"Fear and lack of death education can prevent grief from being openly understood or addressed, leading teachers and peers to respond in ways that don’t support healthy processing.\"},{\"question\":\"How does unprocessed grief affect children’s learning and mental health?\",\"answer\":\"Unhealthy grief processing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, influencing a child’s ability to regulate emotions and potentially contributing to anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.\"},{\"question\":\"What supports do schools need to help grieving children?\",\"answer\":\"Schools need bereavement-trained teachers, integrated death education, emotion-regulation practices, and access to counsellors trained in play-based therapies to provide a safe, supportive environment for children to process feelings.\"}]","Addressing Grief in the Classroom: A Complicated Equalizer | PDF",1792082579]