A Childg Cognitive Perception of Death by Catherine Goodwin and Phyllis M. Davidson

Modem technology and health practices of people today have resulted in people living longer than ever before. Also, the institutions of the hospital and funeral home today make death more physically distant from the child's world. It is not uncommon for the past two generations to have grown up to middle adulthood and not to have experienced the death of an immediate family member (Lemer, 1976). As a result, death today is viewed more as an intrusion on normal reality (Gordan & Klass, 1979).

Historically, children were com- mon wimesses to death in their family. During the great plague of the Middle Ages, the chant "Ashes, ashes, all fall down" from a children's game called ring-around-the-rosie conveyed chil- dren's awareness of the death of many people at that t ime (Kastenbaum, 1981). Children's awareness of death

Catherine Goodwin is Special Education Coordinator, College of Human Ecology, The University of Tennessee. Phyllis M. Davidson is Associate Professor, School of Home Economics, Tennessee Techno- logical University.

as a constant possibility was further widened by the first prayer a child usually learned - - "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take" - - and by children's games such as peek- a-boo, hide-and-seek, and also rope skipping chants (Crase & Crase, 1976; Kastenbaum, 1981).

Before the 1900s, the infant mortal- ity rate was high. A significant num- ber of infants could be expected to die before adulthood (Gordon & KIass, 1979). Since death commonly oc-

curred at home, children very likely helped with the care of the patient, were present at the time of death, were included in the planning of the funer- al, and attended the funeral.

P rofess iona ls who work with young children are recognizing the importance of teaching the concept of death to young children (MacIsaac & King, 1989; Riley, 1989). As teachers, it is important for us to understand how young children perceive death in order to have competence in teaching children about death and assisting those who have been touched by death

WINTER 1991 2'J

personally. This paper reviews the lit- erature on work conducted on how children perceive death. It also pro- vides teachers with practical ideas which they can use to facilitate the discussion of death in the classroom.

The majority of research on chiI- dren's perceptions of death has been conducted with children three years and older. For the child three and un- der, it has been found that the child's concern is with the separation from the parent (Bowlby, 1969; Brenner, 1985; Kersey, 1986; and Ktibler-Ross, t969). The child's reaction to this sep- aration is greatly influenced by adults who care for the child.

A study conducted with Hungarian children (Nagy, 1948) has provided the foundation from which most work on children's perceptions of death has originated. Nagy studied 378 children, three to ten years of age, who ex- pressed their thoughts and feelings on death. Nagy discovered three phrases in the child's awareness of mortality, which blended well with Piaget's last three stages of cognitive development.

According to Piaget, children pass through four cognitive stages as men- tal structures mature and they interact with the world around them. Piaget's stages of cognitive development are sensorimotor (birth to two years), pre- operational (two to six years), con- crete-operat ional (seven to eleven years), and formal-operational (twelve years to adulthood). Consequently, if we use Piaget's model, a child of three would not react to or understand the death of a friend or relative in the same way as a child of twelve (Wass, 1979).

In the first phase of awareness of death (three to five years), the child views death not as final, but as a tem- porary state like sleeping (Kane, 1979; Kersey, 1986; Kiibler-Ross, 1969; Lonetto, 1980; Nagy, 1948). Nagy concluded that the child viewed death as a continuation of life, but on a re- duced level. Being dead and being asleep are viewed as similar condi- tions.

Children between five and nine years of age begin to comprehend that death is final but that it is also some- thing that happens to other people and

not themselves. At this stage, children may personify death as being a man, skeleton, monster, or "bogeyman." Since death is viewed as a person, it may be fought; thus, a clever person may not be caught by death. Death captures and takes away only those who are too old or weak to conquer it (Kane, 1979; Kersey, 1986; Ktibler- Ross, 1969; Lonetto, 1980; Nagy, 1948).

The third phase starts at nine or ten years of age and continues onward to adulthood. In this stage, the child be- gins to grasp the concept that death is universal and not reversible, which is consistent with Childers and Wimmer (1971), who found that by age ten, 90% of the chi ldren recogn ized death's universality, The child beans to realize that he or she will one day die and that it may even be a painful process. The child at this stage shows adult reasoning (Kane, 1979; Kersey, 1986; Ktibler-Ross, 1969; Lonetto, 1980; Nagy, 1948).

This cognitive developmental ap- proach for understanding a child 's perception of death was reinforced by Koocher (1973), who used develop- mental tasks developed by Piaget to study seventy-five children's (six to fifteen years) perceptions of death. He concluded that children's understand- ing of death seemed fairly consistent with their overall way of understand- ing the world.

Other factors which have been found to influence children's percep- tions of death have been socioeco- nomic class (Ta_llmer, Formaneck, & Tallmer, 1974) and the culture in which the child was reared (Gartley & Bernasconi, 1967; Melear, 1973).

The following is information from experts who have worked with teach- ing young children about death. One of the best times to discuss death with a young child is when he or she has had a direct or indirect experience with death, such as the death of a fam- ily pet or a death on a television pro- gram. The timing of questions from young children might not always be at appropriate times for discussion; how- ever, if the question cannot be an- swered immedia te ly , it should be made clear to the child that you are

not avoiding the subject and that you will deal with it at a more appropriate time.

Guidelines for Caregivers

Communication Strategies (Crase & Crase , 1976) has identified five principles for effectively communicat- ing with children about death. Follow- ing are those five principles and con- cepts from other professionals which reinforce those communication princi- ples:

I. Children's questions need to be answered truthfully, factually but with few details, and at a level which they can understand. According to Groll- man (1967), children don' t need to fully comprehend the answers to their questions about death. Simply talking about the subject makes it less myste- rious and fearful. Furman (1975) has identified three basiic underlying ,ques- tions which children are attempting to answer:

a. What is "dead"? Developmental- ly this question lays; the foundation for a child to understand that death is not life or a reduced level but means no life, breathing, pain, sleeping, or eat- ing.

b. Can it happen to me? c. Can it happen to you?

2. Make sure you understand what the child is asking before giving an answer. Children ask questions using both direct and indirect approaches for the purposes of cognitive information (seekdng clarification to confusing ex- periences) and emotional reassurance (seetdng comfort and a lessening of anxiety). In order to gain more infor- mat ion to appropr ia le ly answer a child's questions about death:

a. Ask the child how he or she would answer the que,;tion (Wass, 1984).

b. Corr~rs, unic~te w:tia ti~e child's parertts about s:~.aat:ons at home which might precipitate the question

c. Observe the chi~c a~: p]a 5 ~-'or clues :o his c,r her :once ms.

3. ~voic ambigaous a:aswe~s e~,- plami:-g death. ]In an attempt !:o pr,> tect ycur~g childrer, adalt~ :,tier gi,,,': con%:dng ,:,9:artati(,r~. ,:f' 5ca!:

Grollman (1967) has identified some common unhealthy explanations:

a. "Mother has gone on a long jour- ney" (p. 10). A child might interpret this to mean that he or she was aban- doned or deserted without a good-bye. As a result, the child may feel anxiety, or resentment or develop a false hope that the lost person may return.

b. "God took Daddy away because he wants and loves the good in heav- en" (p. t l ) . This could result in a child's developing fear, resentment, and hatred toward God as well as fear- fulness about being good.

c. "Daddy is now in heaven" (p. 11). Cognitively, young children can- not understand the spiritual connota- tion of someone residing in heaven when he or she saw the physical body placed in the ground.

d. "Grandma died because she was sick (p. 12). Young children may be- come fearful of death because of an inability to distinguish between seri- ous illnesses and common childhood diseases.

e. "To die is to s leep" (p. 12). Young children may be fearful of tak-

ing naps and going to sleep because of a fear of never waking up.

4. Respect a child's view of death irregardless of how inaccurate the per- ception may be. This will enable a child to develop trust in an adult and wilt facilitate adult-child communica- tion.

5. Avo id answer ing c h i l d r e n ' s ques t ions based on re l ig ious and philosophical beliefs. If a child is per- sistent in seeking an answer within those domains, parents should be en- couraged to share their personal be- liefs with the child.

Activities

The advantage of experiences in the classroom:

Have live pets in the classroom so that children can experience death in a simple, nonpersonaL objective man- ner. When death occurs, use it as an opportunity to talk about death. Invite children to participate in the disposal of the dead animal.

Have children take responsibility

for keeping live plants in the class- room. Children need to learn that in order to l ive and grow, all l iv ing things need elements such as food, water, and light.

Introduce young children to the cy- cle of life. In the spring, plant sun- flower seeds with the children. Let the children water and watch the sunflow- er grow. When it dies in the fall, dis- cuss the benefits obtained from the sunflower seeds (food for birds and people).

Allow children to learn from expe- rience by taking them on a field trip to a cemetery (Riley, 1989).

Plan the curriculum to provide ex- perience for children to become aware of their feelings and emotions. The use of puppets can be helpful in get- ting children to express their feelings in nonthreatening ways. Use active l i s t en ing such as "You are fee l - ing now because " "to help children label and understand their feelings.

Plan the curriculum to provide op- portunit ies for children to develop body awareness . Help chi ldren to

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learn parts of the body and their func- tion, as well as physical changes which occur after death, such as loss of hearing, sight, and breathing. These types of experiences can also be relat- ed to class pets.

Use bibliotherapy for the purpose of providing information after death. Stories with a death-related theme should be occasionally read to chil- dren. Books with accurate pictures concerning death should be made available for children to look through at their leisure.

In summary, death does not have to be foreign to a child's world. Chil- dren's perceptions of death appear to grow though developmental levels similar to Piaget's stages of cognitive development.

Along with these basic stages, fac- tors such as life experiences, religious background, environmental influences and language also play a role in each child's understanding of the concept of death.

References

Anthony, S. (1972). The discovery of death in childhood and after. New York: Basic Books.

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books.

Brenner, A. (1985). Helping children cope with stress. Lexington, D. C. Health.

Childers, W., & Wimmer, M. (1971). The concept of death in children. Child Development, 42, 1299-1301.

Crase, D. R., & Crase, D. (1976); November-Helping children under- stand death. Young Children, pp. 21-25.

Furman, E. (1975). Helping children cope with death. In J. F. Brown (Ed.) (1982), Curriculum planning for young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Gartley, W., & Bernasconi, M. (1967). The concept of death in children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 110, 71-85.

Gordon, A. K., & Klass, D. (1979). The need to know." How to teach children bout death. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Grollman, E. A. (1967). Prologue: Ex- plaining death to children. In E. A. Groltman (Ed.), Explaining death to children. Boston: Beacon Press.

Kane, B. (1979). Children's concept of death. Journal of Genetic Psy- chology, 134, 141-t53.

Kastenbaum, R. J. (1981). Death, so- cieO,, and human experience. St. Louis: Mosby.

Kersey, K. (1986). Helping your child handle stress: The parent's guide to recognizing and solving child- hood problems. Washington, DC: Acropolis Books.

Koocher, G. (1973). Childhood, death and cognitive development. Devel- opmental Psychology, 9, 369-375.

Ktibler-Ross, E. (1969). On death and dying. New York: Macmillan,

Lerner, M. (1976). Why, when, and where people die. In E.S. Shneid- man, (Ed.), Death: Current prospectives. Palo Alto, CA: May- field.

Lonetto, R. (1980). Children's con- ceptions of death. New York: Springer.

MacIsaac, P., & King, S. (1989). What did you do with Sophie, teacher? Young Children, 44 (2), 37-38.

Melear, J. D. (1973). Children's con- ceptions of death. Journal of Ge- netic Psychology, 123,359-360.

Mills, G. C., Reisler, R., Robinson, A. E., & Vermilye, G. (1976). Dis- cussing death: A guide to death ed- ucation. IL: ETC.

Nagy, M. (1948). The child's theories concerning death. Journal of Ge- netic Psychology, 73, 3-27.

Riley, S. S. (1989). Pilgrimmage to Elmwood cemetery. Young Chil- dren, 44 (2), 33-36.

Tallmer, M. Formanek, R., & Taltrner, J. (1974). Factors influencing chil- dren's concepts of death. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 3, 17-t9.

Wass, H. (1979). Dying: Facing the facts. Washington; DC: Hemi- sphere.

Wass, H. (1984). Parents, teachers, and health professionals as helpers. In H. Wass & C. A. Corr. (1984). Helping children cope with death: Guidance and resources (2nd ed.)o Washington, DC: Hemisphere. ~}

24 DAY CARE AND EARLY EOUCAT!ON