WU Loss and Developmental Stages Paper

Imagine that a 5-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy have lived their entire lives in an apartment with their mother, father, and grandfather, and their father has just been sentenced to 3 years in prison. The little girl may not understand very much about the criminal justice system, but she is very aware that her father used to be a daily presence in her home and he no longer is. The loss of her father’s presence may make her feel both sad and confused. She may even notice that there is something about her father’s absence that the adults in her life seem reluctant to discuss. Her teenage brother is probably acutely aware of the stigma associated with incarceration, and this may add extra layers to his grief experience.  

Loss is a common experience in childhood and may take many forms from very ambiguous losses that are difficult to define to concrete losses like death. In this Assignment, you examine the impact of a particular type of loss on children and develop strategies to support children of different developmental stages as they process their grief.  

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.

Readings 

To prepare:

• Review the Learning Resources on family disruption, loss, death, and grief in childhood.  
• Choose one of the following types of loss and research how this type of loss impacts children. You may use the textbook, but you should also identify at least 3 additional pieces of scholarly literature from the Walden Library.  (you can login)
  • Divorce 
  • Community Violence 
  • Death of a Sibling    DO DEATH OF A SIBLING 
• Imagine that you are a social worker working with two different clients who are experiencing this loss: a 10-year-old and a 4-year-old.   
• Consider how the two clients might experience the loss differently and how your social work approach might vary based on the client’s developmental stage.  

             BY DAY 7    

Submit a 3-page paper addressing the following: 

• Using evidence from the literature, explain how the loss impacts children.   
• Describe two best practices social workers can employ when working with children experiencing this type of loss.  
• Describe the approaches you would take to help a 10-year-old client and a 4-year-old client process and work through the loss. In your description, explain how you would integrate each child’s developmental stage into your work with them.  

Use the Learning Resources and the literature you identified to support your Assignment. Make sure to provide APA citations and a reference list.

References

• Cohen Konrad, S. (2020). Child and family practice: A relational perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 
  • Chapter 10, “Family Disruption and Ambiguous Losses” (pp. 269–302) 
  • Chapter 11, “Death and Grief in Childhood” (pp. 303–332) 
  • Chapter 12, “The Impact of Violence on Children” (pp. 333–362)
     
• Alvis, L., Zhang, N., Sandler, I. N., & Kaplow, J. B. (2022).Developmental manifestations of grief in children and adolescents: Caregivers as key grief facilitatorsLinks to an external site.. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00435-0

   

• Saleem, F. T., Anderson, R. E., & Williams, M. (2020). Addressing the “myth” of racial trauma: Developmental and ecological considerations for youth of colorLinks to an external site.. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 23(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-019-00304-1

   

• Speaking Grief. (n.d.). Kids grieve differently than adultsLinks to an external site.. https://speakinggrief.org/get-better-at-grief/unde…