Coloring Book Helps to Teach Kids About Tragedy

A coloring book with burnt out cars, buildings on fire and tornadoes does not sound like a coloring book that many parents would give to their children to color. However, this coloring book was posted on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s web site.

The coloring book was posted on FEMA’s web site after the 9/11 attacks. The purpose of the coloring book was to help children cope with anxiety and fears that they may have had from their experiences of 9/11. However, the coloring book was removed from the website last week from FEMA’s web site.

The coloring book was created in Minnesota, by the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team. According to Rose Olmsted, a representative from the response team, “I’ve never received any criticism of the book until yesterday. “Everything we’ve heard in terms of feedback had been positive”.

This coloring book and others like it have been used for other disasters. In 2007, after the Minnesota bridge collapse a coloring book was used to help children. Australia also used a coloring book for their children after the wildfires.

Art therapy is often used to help children that have gone through traumatic events in their life. The therapy helps child to express their feelings that they often suppress after a scary experience such as 9/11.

However, a L.A. based psychologist stated that “while she does see coloring as an effective coping mechanism for children who have experienced traumatic events, she warns against one tool being used too broadly”.

If your child experienced 9/11, as a parent you would have to decide what you felt was the best method of therapy for your child. I believe that art therapy can be extremely effective in children. However, I am not sure whether or not I would want my child coloring pictures of burning buildings or burnt out cars. All children are different and all children cope with traumatic events differently. Therefore, I agree that the coloring book should not be used to help treat all children. I feel as though the help of a professional art therapist would be the best solution to the problem.