Children with incarcerated parents is a topic that
isn’t talked about enough. Incarceration is a touchy subject that kids don’t
like to talk about. Some are afraid of what others will think and others don’t
know how to deal with it emotionally. As educators, we should always provide as
much information as we can about different topics. Last semester I attended a
seminar “Supporting and Advocating for Children Who Have Parents Who Are
Incarcerated”. This seminar was very informative because I never realized how
many children are going through this. There are a lot of books and tool kits to
help children and their families deal with this issue.
For children 5-8 years old I recommend The Night Dad Went to Jail: What to Expect
When Someone You Love Goes to Jail by Melissa Higgins. This picture book is
helpful for parents or guardians to explain what is going on when a parent or
parents is incarcerated. In my opinion, this book will help kids identify the
emotions they are feeling and hopefully help this deal with them. No one knows
that pain that children go through when losing a parent and sometimes the child
sometimes doesn’t know how to handle their emotions.
While doing my internship I stumbled across a book
called Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me
by Daniel Beaty. I would recommend this book for primary aged children. I like
this book because it is about a boy who has a close bond with his father,
everyday they play the game “Knock, knock” and then one day his dad doesn’t knock
on his door to play.
The state of California provides a “How to explain Jails
and Prison to children” booklet. This booklet if very helpful for any child
dealing with a loved in jail or prison. I think all teachers and school personnel
should have this booklet as a resource to explain to the student what is going.
This booklet is designed to help parents and caregivers answer children’s
questions about jail and prison. When families receive truthful information,
they can understand and cope with some of the stress they may experience when a
relative goes to jail or prison.
For younger children, I found the Sesame Street
Incarceration toolkit to be extremely helpful. In the toolkit, there is a video
explaining what incarceration and another providing examples of the feelings a
child might feel. To make things feel more realistic for the child, there is a video
of a child telling his story about when his parent went to jail.
Here is a link for more literature on helping children
deal with incarceration
https://www.nh.gov/nhdoc/fcc/documents/fccbooklist01.pdf
Resources
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