Cognitive Development Considerations to Support Bereaved Students: Practical Applications for School Psychologists

School psychologists' training and experience in providing grief support

“…Although school‐based mental health professionals may be familiar with the grief process in children, how children experience grief depends upon their developmental level (Schonfeld et al, 2016). Young children may not understand the finality of death and may believe that their loved one will return; however, as they get older, they will likely recognize the permanence and irreversibility of death (Brown et al, 2015; Dogan‐Ates, 2010). This shift in perception of death may elicit more emotions from the child as they realize that their loved one will not be returning.…”

Examining the implications of early adolescent attachment on out‐of‐home placement and family courts

“…Therefore, many early adolescents who have been removed from their caregiver most likely lack abstract cognitive functioning, which includes thoughts of cause and effect (i.e., what could happen if I do this). As another cognitive component, youth at this age focus all their thinking on themselves, called egocentrism (Allen & Waterman, 2019; Brown et al, 2015; Gould & Howson, 2019), which encompasses the misaligned simultaneous thinking that nothing can hurt the youth (invincibility) and that everything that happens does so directly to affect/because of them (if something goes wrong it only happens to make them unhappy, not accounting for external factors).…”

“…This age range is known as “early adolescence” and is recognized as a separate and critical time of development and attachment during adolescence by world‐renowned health organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (Allen & Waterman, 2019), the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (2018), the World Health Organization (WHO; 2019), and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF; 2011). This is the second‐most critical attachment period, after the infant/toddler age range, due to rapid changes in the physical, neural, cognitive, and social–emotional development of the youth (Allen & Waterman, 2019; Blomgren et al, 2016; Brown, 2015; Gould & Howson, 2019; Kuhn et al, 2010; Pan et al, 2016; Piaget, 2008; Sikora, 2016; UNICEF, 2011; WHO, 2019, Withington et al, 2017). Early adolescents shift in their attachment from solely relying on their primary caregiver to attachments with peers for validation and self‐worth and in readiness of adult autonomy (Blomgren et al, 2016; Withington et al, 2017).…”

Vol 11, No 3 (2021): February

“…Y es que la muerte, como hemos comentado anteriormente, se ha convertido en un tabú que se ha intentado alejar de la realidad (Puolimatka & Solasaari, 2006), debido al contexto postmoderno en el que vivimos donde se prioriza el materialismo y disfrutar, ocultando la muerte como realidad antagónica a dicha concepción. En este sentido, los futuros docentes subrayaban la importancia de recibir formación específica en torno a la normalización de la muerte por no encontrarse preparados para trabajarla (Brown, Jimerson, & Comerchero, 2015), una petición que se viene repitiendo en otros estudios (Colomo & Cívico, 2018;Pereira & Pereira, , 2014). Dicha formación les permitirá normalizar la muerte en su realidad personal, un aspecto clave para poder realizar procesos de acompañamiento ante pérdidas en el contexto del aula.…”