Bereavement support for children with SEND
We offer support to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities when dealing with the death of a parent or sibling.
Supporting grieving children and young people with SEND
There are an estimated 44,496 children with SEND bereaved of a parent in the UK* and, just like all bereaved children and young people, they need support to understand and cope with their grief. Adults are naturally inclined to want to protect and shield children from difficult and sad situations, and this may be even more so for children with special educational needs and disabilities due to their ability to understand death. Below is some information and guidance on how to support bereaved children with SEND, and the specialist support Winston’s Wish can offer grieving families.
Telling a child with SEND about a death
Some people may believe that a child with SEND does not have the cognitive ability to understand the death of a parent or sibling, but we know that this is not true. Even a young baby acknowledges the loss of someone close to them. When you tell a child with special educational needs and disabilities the news of a death, provide all of the relevant details to the level of your child’s understanding and using their preferred mode(s) of communication. By giving children with SEND the facts about the death, we are helping them to understand what has happened and supporting them with any changes this may bring about, which is best for the whole family.
How to get bereavement support
The nature of a child’s SEND may make it difficult for them to understand what death really means, and how they can manage the changes that have occurred in their life. So it is really important that those around them know how to support them.
Our experienced team can offer guidance, advice and support to adults supporting bereaved children with SEND. Contact us by:
- Call: 08088 020 021
- Email: ask@winstonswish.org
- Use our online chat
- Crisis Messenger text service: text WW to 85258
Advice and resources from our team
Do children with SEND understand death?
For a child with SEND, their functional level will be the biggest factor in their understanding. Our team explains what children at different developmental stages understand about death.
We All Grieve book – supporting grieving children with SEND
Our specialist book offers practical advice to help adults supporting children and young people with SEND after the death of a loved one. Includes information, practical suggestions and activities.
Activities for bereaved children with SEND
This activity pack is intended to be used alongside our book, We All Grieve, to support bereaved children with SEND. Includes activity ideas and suggestions for school lessons.
How to tell a child with SEND their loved one has died
Our team offer guidance on how to tell a child with special educational needs and disabilities that their loved one has died and suggest the appropriate language you could use.
Online bereavement training for professionals
Our one-day course, delivered online via Zoom, provides a comprehensive guide to supporting bereaved children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities.
Books to help children with SEND understand grief
Stories and books are a great way to help all children, especially children with SEND, explore their grief, so here is our list of suggested books.
Social Stories about grief and bereavement
Download our free social stories to talk about death, grief and bereavement with a child or young person with autism.
Supporting a bereaved child who has autism
All children are individual and will grieve in their own way, but here are some things to consider when supporting a bereaved child who has autism..
Activities for grieving children and young people
Activities to help grieving children and young people express their feelings and maintain memories of the person who has died.
A note on figures
*There are an estimated 309,000 bereaved children in the UK (Childhood Bereavement Network) and 14.4% of pupils in England have special educational needs (Department for Education, January 2017). Using these figures we estimate there are 44,496 bereaved children with SEND in the UK.
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