SAINT LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - "Oftentimes if we are really stressed or we are really horrified, take a deep breath and try not to bring all of that energy into the conversation," advises Rebecca Rolland, author of the new book, The Art of Talking with Children.
KMOX News asked Rolland how to handle a conversation with kids about current events in Ukraine. She says first, it's important to understand what a child's perspective is. "I spoke to some kids who said, 'oh, I thought wars only happened hundreds of years ago' and so a lot of times kids have a different understanding of current events or a situation than we do."
Rolland says you can use unsettling world events as a way to help your child learn empathy and compassion. "What can we do when we see that other people are suffering? Or what can we do when we notice injustice in the world? And so starting to take that more realistic but also optimistic perspective of compassion and of helping."
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Rolland says kids who learn to have constructive conversations and explore their curiosity... will have better conversational skills as adults.
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