Analysis Of Nancy Boyd Webb's Social Work Practice With Children

Children and adults experience the death of a loved one or a death of any person differently. In Nancy Boyd Webb’s publication, Social Work Practice with Children, she describes children’s cognitive development and understanding of death. Since the client is an eight year old who has lost her mother to breast cancer, I will focus on her age to understand Piaget’s stage and her chronological age understanding of death. For this eight year old girl, she is considered to be in Freud’s the latency-age. This stage is characterized by children ages seven to ten years of age, in which children subdue their sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills (Santrock, 2009). In Piaget’s stage, the young has entered the concrete operational
One grief response could be that the child cannot express her emotions. She may become numb to the feeling of the loss of her mother. Shock could be one of her grief responses at this time as well. This mood could also perceive the child as being withdrawn, but her emotions may be unclear at this time. She could also be feeling withdrawn from others at this time which is normal, but it is important for those who are in her life should make sure she is continuing to participate in her normal activities, fighting off any development of
This can also be associated with the bargaining stage of grief. She could believe that her mother died due to something she has done during her childhood or more recent behaviors. She could then begin to bargain as if her thoughts, behaviors, or emotions factored into her mother’s development of breast cancer and resulting in her death. The young girl could also be facing some developmental regressions. Her mother’s death can bring bouts of bedwetting or not being able to hold her bladder throughout the day due to the recent trauma. Wetting herself is also known as enuresis. She could also face encopresis which is the release of fecal matter. It can be voluntary or involuntary during her grief process. Other signs of developmental regression could be acts of clinginess, seeking in baby babbles or language regression, and inability to use skills associated with her chronological and developmental