How can we help our kids to understand, cope and recover from floods?

As a speech pathologist, I spend a lot of my time trying to help children understand the world around them. During the floods of 2022, I began to wonder: how can we help our kids to understand, cope and recover from these floods?

I was born and bred in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, in a small town called Dunoon, just outside of Lismore, and currently practice across the Clarence Valley. As the floods engulfed my hometown, I couldn’t help but think about the impact this disaster was having, and would continue to have, on the kids in our community.

So I did some research, reached out to some colleagues, and together we compiled a learning resource to help parents and those who work closely with children to support them through this traumatic experience.

Together, we created:

• A detailed PDF learning resource designed for parents, guardians, teachers, older siblings – basically anyone who interacts with kids – that should help facilitate constructive, healthy conversations about the floods. There are also some useful contacts, along with information for a community story-telling project.
• A social media resource that condenses the information in the learning resource into six social-media-friendly slides.

Our resources have been shared far and wide and have provided much-needed and appreciated guidance for many people across the region. We hope for our resources to reach as many people as possible, so that we can continue to collectively support our children to understand, cope and recover from disasters like the 2022 floods.

‘I have no idea how those families who were rescued from their roofs are able to deal with that they went through – this will be another tool in their toolbox.’ – Linda Mills

‘This is fabulous – children’s emotions and the impact on them after traumatic events such as floods are often overshadowed by the affects on the adults and how they are coping.’ – Deb Everingham

‘A fabulous resource that could be used for kids in many traumatic situations.’ – Sally Mansfield

For more information, please contact me at [email protected]