Supporting 4-6-year-old children grieving life crises through creative methods
Hafurova, Erika (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052716398
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052716398
Tiivistelmä
This thesis’ object was to explore children’s grief through creative methods which can be used in support. The purpose was to create a guide booklet based on theory and implementation of the functional part for the use of early childhood educators, other people working with children and parents at home. This guide booklet was done together with Mannerheim League for Child Welfare and is taken for their materials. The material is in MLL’s intranet of Uusimaa’s district region. Both English and Finnish versions can be found at the end of this thesis in Appendices. Development task of this functional thesis was to plan, implement and create based on feedback the finalized guide booklet.
Theory focused on Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland, emotional development of 4-6-year-old children. In addition, three different life crises: loss of someone, divorce and moving to another place and grief process including three different emotions: sadness, anger and fear were examined. Creative methods used in this thesis theory and the functional part were play, art and music.
The creative workshops highlighted the importance of emotional education with children and especially learning and practicing to understand and express the negatively perceived emotions. The creative methods were tested and resulted to be suitable and effective for this age group of children. Professionals working in ECEC and other people with children could benefit from getting to know more about children’s grief process and how to support children during it by using creative methods.
This functional study supports recognizing early childhood as a time where also life crises might belong and negatively perceived emotions take place in children’s lives. Adults are the ones responsible for taking action to practice to support and start doing emotional education with children. It is crucial to utilize creative methods in support which are natural in young children’s life. Recommendation for future research is about the effect of moving away for young children and how to support them in adaptation and if visiting the old area alleviates the felt grief. Another recommendation is to train personnel in daycare on grief work and use creative methods with children in emotional education.
Theory focused on Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland, emotional development of 4-6-year-old children. In addition, three different life crises: loss of someone, divorce and moving to another place and grief process including three different emotions: sadness, anger and fear were examined. Creative methods used in this thesis theory and the functional part were play, art and music.
The creative workshops highlighted the importance of emotional education with children and especially learning and practicing to understand and express the negatively perceived emotions. The creative methods were tested and resulted to be suitable and effective for this age group of children. Professionals working in ECEC and other people with children could benefit from getting to know more about children’s grief process and how to support children during it by using creative methods.
This functional study supports recognizing early childhood as a time where also life crises might belong and negatively perceived emotions take place in children’s lives. Adults are the ones responsible for taking action to practice to support and start doing emotional education with children. It is crucial to utilize creative methods in support which are natural in young children’s life. Recommendation for future research is about the effect of moving away for young children and how to support them in adaptation and if visiting the old area alleviates the felt grief. Another recommendation is to train personnel in daycare on grief work and use creative methods with children in emotional education.