Nursery World - Help children to cope with terror (1)

A child psychologist has told carers and parents to expect to see some children playing at pretending to be aircraft crashing into buildings, in order to make sense of last week's tragedy in the United States. Dr Michele Elliott, founder and director of the charity Kidscape, said adults working in schools and nurseries would have to deal with the effect on children of seeing the images of last week's plane crashes in New York and Washington.

Dr Michele Elliott, founder and director of the charity Kidscape, said adults working in schools and nurseries would have to deal with the effect on children of seeing the images of last week's plane crashes in New York and Washington.

She said, 'Schools may find that children are acting out the event in the playground by pretending to be planes crashing into buildings. This is only children's way of trying to come to terms with what happened.' Children will need reassurance that their everyday lives will not be affected by the tragic events, Dr Elliott added. 'The important thing is to reassure children that they and their families are going to be all right. What children are concerned about is their own world. Reassure them that their homes, parents and families are OK.'

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