Child psychologist shares ways to help parents, children heal after deadly bus crash
A community is heartbroken after a bus crash in Clark County killed 1 child and injured at least 20 others.
News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott spoke with a clinical psychologist who talked through the emotions some may be feeling after the crash.
Multiple parents waited for updates on their children after the crash Tuesday morning.
Around 8:15 a.m., a Northwestern Local Schools bus was heading westbound on Troy Road when it was struck by an SUV that traveled left of center into its path.
Brittany Fisher said she couldn’t help but think the worse happened to her children.
“I thought that my children were dead, because it was a bad wreck. It was bad,” Fischer said.
>> RELATED: Student killed, over 20 other students injured after school bus crash in Clark Co.
She said the experience was traumatic for her sons who are 5 and 11 years old.
Clinical Psychologist Amanda Beeman said how children deal with trauma can differ.
“In young kids, we often see distress come out in tantrums and withdrawn,” Beeman said.
A response some children and even parents might have is being scared to get back on the bus for the rest of the school year.
>> PHOTOS: Student killed in school bus crash in Clark County
Beeman said families can talk about that together.
“Taking time to listen and explore your child’s feelings is going to be a really important first step to understand where they’re at without necessarily assuming where they’re at.” she said, “maybe they’re not quite to the point where they’re going to share with you like what it was like for them on the bus. But we can still meet them by helping them understand that when hard things happen, this is how we can manage it together.”
Beeman also said children might need professional help to deal with what they have been through and that is okay.
The same goes for parents who are also dealing with trauma in their own way.
Parents working to heal themselves then allows them to have a better chance of helping their kids.
More information on how to heal after a traumatic event can be found here.
