Often, she said, it gives them a feeling of relief and also sparks a dialogue about their experiences with grown-ups.However, the youngest children, warns Dr Goodman, misunderstand the video clips they see over and over again on television of the planes striking the towers. “How can they keep letting that airplane hit the building?” is their common response, she says. She has recommended that children under the age of five be kept away from news bulletins. Expression of feelings through art can be part of the healing processBy Jeremy Laurance Health EditorChildren’s drawings that capture the horror of traumatic events are part of the healing process rather than evidence of lasting psychological damage, an expert on post-traumatic stress said yesterday.Younger children tend to be more literal-minded in their responses, recording what happened plainly and bluntly in a way that may sometimes seem shocking to adults. Older children tend to adopt a symbolic approach, indicating a more mature reflection on the events. Dr James Thompson, head of the post-traumatic stress disorder clinic at Middlesex Hospital, London, which has treated survivors from disasters, said: “There is an enormous literature on children’s drawings after dreadful events.

The younger children tend to be absolutely literal and straightforward. One of the pictures by the New York children shows people falling from a building and quite accurately locates where the fire was. Another shows how the twin towers were hit at different heights. These are factual, accurate drawings ­ a blunt acknow-ledgement of what happened.”The more detached treatment of the subject by the older children, using the symbols of the dove of peace and the flag carrying the legend “Fear”, were more akin to an adult response to the events.”The key thing is that when a child sees things which are distressing it seems that drawing them and talking about them is a way of processing the event and coming to terms with it and we should probably see it as beneficial. One should not look at these pictures as evidence of stark psychological disorder,” Dr Thompson said.After the Skopje earthquake in Yugoslavia in 1964, parents were horrified when children started playing games that involved burying things But this was part of their recovery.

Parents should question their children about the events, whether they had witnessed them directly or only seen them on television. “You should probably ask your children what they think about what they have seen. Kids are generally good at distinguishing reality from fantasy but they can get confused. Some might think they caused the attack on New York or were involved in it. Some might be unsure whether it is over or not.”Research on children rescued from the cross-Channel ferryHerald of Free Enterprise, which sank off Zeebrugge in 1987, and a Greek ferry carrying British children that sank in the harbour at Piraeus the following year, showed that parents had underestimated the impact of the disaster on them. A child may not say anything but may carry the memory of the event, even if only seen on TV, and may be unable to “forget it away”..