Your children look to you for answers and support. If your child experiences extreme anxiety, talk to your pediatrician about helpful resources. 

Published: November 5, 2025

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The Rev. Rick Forest, chaplain and bereavement care coordinator at Norton Children’s Hospital, and Clinton Nowicke, Psy.D., clinical pediatric psychologist with Norton Children’s, offer thoughts on how to talk to kids about tragedy in a community.

• For younger children especially, find out what they already know. Answer questions honestly, but without going into unnecessary detail or providing answers to unasked questions. Give only the facts they need. Older children may need more information because they tend to ask more questions and may hear friends talking about the incident.
• Provide reassurance. Security is often a child’s main concern, and your children may wonder if this awful thing can happen to them. Children may feel worried about going into public places or even back to school. Reassure your children that you also are focused on safety everywhere you go, even if it’s as simple as wearing a seat belt in the car. Explain that you don’t want to put anyone in the family in an unsafe situation.
• It’s OK to feel sad or upset. Yes, something terrible happened and it’s OK to feel bad about it, and even a little worried.
• Think about taking a break from the news, including social media. Adults often handle these incidents better than children, who may get carried away by their imaginations.
• Watch your own actions. Children take their cues on how to react by watching adults around them. If you’re calm with how you handle bad news and events, it’s reassuring to children and helps them learn how to cope.
• For children who are extremely upset, be sure to maintain a normal schedule. Spend quality time with them, such as playing a board game or going to a playground.
• Be available when questions come up. Often kids will ask one question and then change the subject. It might be that the answer upsets them or that they need time to process it. After they think about it a while, more questions may surface.

The most important thing is to be there for your children. They look to you for answers and support. If your child experiences extreme anxiety, talk to your pediatrician about helpful resources.