How to handle tragic situations like Louisville plane crash with kids
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After a tragic event like the plane crash in Louisville on Tuesday, many parents may be wondering how to break the news to their kids in an age-appropriate way. Psychologist Clint Nowicke with Norton Children’s has a few tips.
Nowicke said to make sure you’re aware of what your child is able to handle, so they can process it appropriately.
“Sometimes it’s difficult because young kids might not have a large enough vocabulary to talk about very scary subjects with younger kids. You want to avoid giving too many of the graphic details, if any of them at all. Older kids might be able to comprehend some of them, but they still don’t need super graphic details,” Nowicke says.
Some kids may use their toys to act out what they’re seeing, while others may have standard anxiety. One tip he recommends is to limit social media use to about 10 to 15 minutes, making it a pretty limited chance they’ll see video of it.
“You also want to avoid shunning any discussion about it, so if a child or adolescent does see the video, come at them with a curious question. How do you feel about what you see?,” Nowicke says.
The main advice he has is to focus on the positives, like the community response.
“If kids and teens are seeing their grown-ups focus on the people who are helping work through the tragedy, focusing on the community response… that’s going to help them feel a lot better about how the situation is going to work out over time,” Nowicke says.
Most importantly, though, is to take advice from Mr. Rogers.
“Anything that is human is mentionable and anything that is mentionable is manageable. So allowing kids to talk about how they feel, regardless of how closely impacted they were, is going to help that kid process what they’re going through. Look for the helpers because you’ll always find somebody who’s helping… and that’s my encouragement for parents in getting through this tragedy is to focus on the people who are helping,” Nowicke says.
