Week 4: Speaking about death in early childhood

Today I was involved in a case study which lead the class in discussing the issues around death and whether early childhood teachers should discuss this amongst young children, is it too much for them to handle? Or do we need to expose them to the truths of life?

The situation we discussed in particular was the death of a pet guinea pig that the children had been looking after for a month at the centre. As early childhood educators it is a tough decision to make based on how we would discuss the death of the guinea pig the children loved very much. I think it is a little easier for parents to discuss death with children as they would say what they beleive based on the families morals and religious believes. As an educator it is much harder to discuss as their are much more stakeholders involved, their is a wide range of diverse religious background found within early childhood centres. One of the ideas the class had was to contact the parents first and inform them that the centre will be discussing the topic of death next week and will do so unless anyone does not aggree with it. The other issue is what to do with the guinea pig, should you bury it, dispose of it or cremate it? It was suggested that maybe we could ask the children what they think we should do? This allows them to create their own opinions and have a voice to make their own decisions. However it is very unlikely that all the children will agree, some children may beleive in burying the guinea pig while others may not.

This is obviously a large ethical issue and educators need to be prepared before they introduce pets into the centre. There is no right or wrong answer here with how to discuss death with children. Educators need to be aware of the impacts death may have on children such as: grieving, bed wetting, a behaviour change, bringing up the topic over and over or avoiding the topic all together. All children deal with situations differently and I beleive it is crucial for educators to be wary of this. There are also many resources out their to help with discussing this topic with children such as: reading books about death or discussing the life cycle of a range of living things, so that children understand that death is a natural way of life.