S3/Ep 15: What Kids Need to Hear When Someone They Love Dies

S3/Ep 15: What Kids Need to Hear When Someone They Love Dies

From Guardians of Hope: Empowering Child Advocacy by Cynthia Ramsaran

March 29, 2026 · 29 min · Season 3 · Episode 15

About this episode

Dr. Elreacy Dock discusses how parents can communicate with children about death and grief in a healing manner.

When death enters a family, most parents freeze — reaching for euphemisms, changing the subject, or shielding kids from grief entirely. But that silence does more harm than the conversation ever could. Dr. Elreacy Dock [https://www.elreacydock.com/]is a thanatologist, death educator, and professor of thanatology trained by David Kessler. In this episode, she helps parents talk to children about death, dying, and grief in ways that are honest, age-appropriate, and ultimately healing — from what to say to a four-year-old versus a teenager, to whether kids should attend funerals, to how to grieve alongside your child while processing your own loss.

People in this episode

Host: Cynthia Ramsaran

Guest: Dr. Elreacy Dock

Topics covered

  • grief
  • child advocacy
  • death education
  • parenting
  • communication
  • thanatology

Keywords

  • death
  • grief
  • children
  • parenting
  • thanatology
  • communication
  • funerals

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: David Kessler

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