Children and Natural Disasters

Natural disasters can be especially traumatic for children as well. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers can help children cope in the aftermath of a natural disaster.  The severity of a child's reactions depends on their specific risk factors, these include exposure to the actual event, personal injury or loss of a loved one, level of parental support, and dislocation from their home or community.

What to look for:

• Preschoolers:
  Thumb sucking, bedwetting, clinging to parents, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, fear of the dark, regression in behavior, and withdrawal from friends.
   
• Elementary School Children:
  Irritability, aggressiveness, clinginess, nightmares, school avoidance, poor concentration, and withdrawal from activities and friends.
   
• Adolescents:
  Sleeping and eating disturbances, agitation, increase in conflicts, physical complaints, delinquent behavior, and poor concentration.

Tips on how to help children cope:

• Remain calm and reassuring
• Acknowledge and normalize their feelings
• Encourage children to talk about disaster-related events
• Promote positive coping and problem-solving skills
• Emphasize children's resiliency
• Strengthen the child's friendships and peer support
• Take care of your needs; being able to cope with your own reactions to a disaster can help better your ability to help your children.

Helping children adjust to relocation after a natural disaster:

• Provide opportunities for children to see friends
• Bring personal items that the child values when staying in temporary housing
• Provide opportunities for children to share their ideas and listen carefully to their concerns or fears
• Be sensitive to the disruption that relocation may cause and be responsive to the child's needs
• Consider the developmental level and unique experiences of each child; it is important to remember that as children vary, so ill their responses to relocation