What is Terrorism? by Atle Dyregrov

Author:Atle Dyregrov
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784508654
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2018-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND – PROVIDING PEGS

When you explain dramatic news to children, especially following terror events, there are two approaches you need to use and keep in mind.

The first and most important is called the ‘therapeutic’ approach. When you explain, curb unnecessary agitation and anxiety regarding what can happen to the child or young person themselves. As a rule, it’s not enough to say that grown-ups aren’t afraid, although it’s important to be a calm role model. Part of this therapeutic approach is to accept that a child may naturally seek more adult proximity, such as being clingier or seeking more attention at bedtime.

The other approach is called ‘educational’. News about terror upsets adults and children, but although it’s terrible news, it can give rise to important learning. It provides parents and teachers with an opportunity to educate their child about the world, other people, and even politics and religion, as well as teaching them how to regulate emotions and bodily reactions. You need to help them establish pegs that enhance their understanding and emotional regulation strategies that they can use throughout life. This educational approach also relates to the therapeutic approach as it helps the child to get a cognitive grip on what has happened and to comprehend how someone could do this.

It’s hard to fathom that anyone can do something so terrible as to carry out a terrorist attack. Adults have pegs that they put their anxieties on that prevent them from continuously thinking that a terrorist attack could happen at any time in their neighbourhood. It’s this adult confidence that children should develop. It’s therefore important to explain to children that such terrorist acts are very, very rare. It doesn’t make the acts less terrible, but it’ll allow children to be protected from constantly thinking that it can happen here and now, any time. Good information dampens children’s anxiety. It’s hard to explain that something is rare to a very young child, but when they’re closer to school age, they understand that Christmas, Eid or Pesach come only once a year, as does their birthday. When you explain frequency and chance in comparison to events they know, they can get an understanding of why they shouldn’t think that it can happen any time. See how we explain this risk in the section ‘The risk of being involved in a terrorist attack’ in Part 1.

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