At least 21 people are dead after a shooting at an elementary school in Texas, just days after a mass shooting at a church in California and a grocery store in New York.
WMFE鈥檚 Danielle Prieur spoke with Winter Park therapist Cherlette McCullough about how to talk to kids about the shootings and when to get help.
Interview highlights
On how to talk to elementary school kids about the shooting
鈥淚 think, an organic conversation with the smaller children around what do you know, and how are you feeling and validating those feelings that they鈥檙e having around what鈥檚 going on, and you鈥檒l be surprised how much they know, and how much they internalize, and how they鈥檙e really coping with it altogether.鈥�
On how to talk to older kids about the shooting
鈥淪ame thing, asking them what they know, how are they feeling? You know, what do they feel about this? What did they think could have happened different and talking about those things.鈥�
On whether parents should take their kids out of school
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think, it is the best thing to keep them out of school or to feed into that conversation around, 鈥業鈥檓 letting you stay home because I don鈥檛 want anything to happen to you.鈥� Because, you know, honestly, school has been a safe place. You know, it has been a safe place for for our children for a long time.鈥�
On a resource she鈥檇 recommend for families right now
鈥淚t鈥檚 called the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. You can Google it and there, they have all these resources, different topics that you can talk about with your child. They have step-by-step things that you can do with your children to help, you know process different traumatic events that they鈥檝e experienced.鈥�
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