A Guide for Helping Parents Help Children Cope with Disaster

"In response to the disasters in New York and Washington DC, we want to remind/provide you some guidelines to support students, families, and staff. They are drawn from a variety of sources, and we have included references to internet addresses for centers specializing in disaster response.

"Given that the emergency is one that is affecting everyone across the country, it is important for us all to be ready to provide some form of information and assistance.

"Below are a few quick points and some resources for you to draw upon. Immediate responses to disasters include shock and denial. These are normal, protective reactions. Shock leaves one feeling stunned or dazed. One may temporarily feel numb. As shock subsides, reactions vary.

"Common Responses include persistent fears (about being separated from family), sleep disturbances, loss of concentration and irritability, physical complaints, withdrawal and listlessness. These symptoms occur as part of the normal, immediate human response to overwhelming events.

"Adults can begin to restore emotional well being by acknowledging feelings, asking for support, reestablishing routines, reaching out to others. They can care for the needs of children and youngsters by listening to their feelings and fears, providing information to clarify what occurred and whether it can affect their lives, and by reestablishing routines that will comfort and reassure.

"For more details on responding, see the Quick Find on our website http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu - Go to the Center Response section and scroll to "Crisis Prevention and Response." One of the things you will find cited is our resource aid "Responding to a Crisis at a School" which contains specific guidelines for responding and follow-up in the weeks to come. You can download this with a click and print off the relevant materials."

The DC Public Charter School Coalition is offering theses links for parents and teachers:

• Coping with Emotions after a Disaster http://www.psychworks.com/PTSD%20response.htm
• Managing Traumatic Stress, American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org
• After a Disaster: Steps You Can Take to Cope with a Stressful Situation http://www.wright.edu/sopp/cps/TraumaticStress.html
• The Child Survivor of Traumatic Stress http://users.umassmed.edu/Kenneth.Fletcher/kidsurv.html
• Helping Children After a Disaster: Facts for Families from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry http://www.aacap.org/
• National Center for PTSD has a large literature base http://www.ncptsd.org/

The D.C. Public School Board has posted its disaster manual on-line to help teachers talk to their students: http://www.k12.dc.us/dcps/disaster_manual.htm

From the DC Public Charter School Coalition - For Teachers:

Some Useful Teaching Strategies & Approaches for Dealing With the Current World Trade Center and Pentagon Crisis

• Read your class - not all groups of students will need or want the same approach. Some might want intense discussion, others a brief check-in, and still others may have had enough or not be ready to talk about this crisis at all - preferring to go back to established routines.
• A poem might be an appropriate place to start. Look in poetry texts or anthologies that deal with grief at the personal level. You might read a poem out loud, and ask students to reflect on their feelings as they hear the poem. This could be followed by having them write journal entries about their feelings, concerns, and questions. Students' writing could be kept private, or shared with others including the teacher - whatever is appropriate.
• Another approach is the K-W-L strategy. Ask students to think about this crisis and answer: What to they Know? What do they Want to know? What have they Learned? (The last question could be answered at the end of the discussion.) This strategy can be a good place to start because it will surface the range of knowledge, misinformation, etc.
• If students are ready for a substantive discussion of this tough and complex topic, you could ask students to work individually then share in pairs their answers to these questions:
• If you had the power of the President, what would you do?
• What would you need to know in order to make your decisions?

Using post its, ask students to write down and then post on the board to be read and/or discussed in small groups or as a whole class - their feelings, concerns or questions about the current disaster.