Short video excerpt in which David Kessler advises parents that art projects and play/games can help children express and process grief. He recommends doing activities with children (drawing, crafts, normal play) to create natural opportunities for spontaneous conversations about loss, rather than forcing direct sit-down talks.
Can I use art or games to help my child grieve? You can use art and games to really help your child grieve. And you will be surprised that many times if you just sit down and do an art project with them or are doing some drawing, how their grief will come into those drawings and will give you a jumping off point sometimes to talk about things. You can also find that in just playing games with kids doing normal activities. Conversations can flow naturally. Adults can sit down and say, let's talk about this loss. Kids have a tougher time with that. They're much more spontaneous. So do activities with kids and just know out of the blue. They might decide to ask a question or have a conversation and you be ready.
