Early Childhood Disaster-Related Resources for Children and Families

Natural and man-made disasters can happen anywhere and at any time. Making sure you and your family are READY can make a big difference when disasters strike.

As your child’s primary caretaker, confidant, and teacher, your support can have the biggest impact on how your child recovers and heals after disasters.

Check out the fact sheets, guides, family tools, and activities for young children below that can help you and your entire family prepare, respond to, and recover from disasters.

Preparedness  |  Response  |  Recovery

Featured Resources

Preparedness for Children and Families

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Caring for Children in a Disaster web page has preparedness tips, toolkits, and information for families, parents, and parents-to-be.
  • There are also downloadable Ready Wrigley coloring and activity books for young children in English and Spanish that cover many types of disasters including:
    • Ready Wrigley for Hurricane Preparedness  (PDF)
    • Ready Wrigley for Earthquake Preparedness  (PDF)
    • Ready Wrigley for Coping After a Disaster  (PDF)
• FEMA Ready Kids! has created four categories of content — Kids, Teens, Families, and Educators and Organizations — that contain tips, activities, and other easy tools to help every age group be prepared for emergencies!
  • Be a Ready Kid  allows children to play games, learn about disasters, and get tips to prepare before disaster strikes. 
  • Ready Teens  explains how everyone has a role in preparedness, including teens.
  • Prepare Your Family  offers family planning checklists, instructions on building a disaster preparedness kit, ways to help children cope after a disaster, and disaster financial planning tools.
  • Educators and Organizers  provides emergency managers, teachers, and others who work with children, a variety of games, tools, back-to-school resources, and planning and recovery materials.
• Early Childhood Development in Emergencies : the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) provides guidance to help train and support parents and caregivers as they prepare for and respond to disasters.
  • Early Child Development Kit for Emergencies  contains materials to help caregivers create a safe learning environment for young children aged 0-8, and offers children access to play, stimulation, and early learning opportunities.
• Disaster Resources  from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
  • Family Preparedness Wallet Card : allows families to list important telephone numbers and other information that could be useful in the case of an emergency. 

Response for Children and Families

• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has several Early Childhood Trauma Resources  including a variety of downloadable PDFs:
  • Natural Disasters: Brief Facts and Tips
  • Large-Scale Natural Disasters: Helping Children Cope : disasters, such as major hurricanes or earthquakes, can have a strong emotional effect even for people not directly affected by the disasters.
  • Helping Children After a Natural Disaster: Tips for Parents and Educators  (PDF) (Infographic)
  • Natural Disaster Resources : developed to help schools and districts provide supports for their students and community in the event of a natural disaster.
  • Relocating to a New School: Tips for Families : moving is challenging, especially when the move is sudden, with little or no preparation, when the family relocates to an unfamiliar area, and particularly when the family has been uprooted without resources.
  • New Schools for Students With Disabilities: Tips for Relocated Families : widespread destruction from a natural disaster can significantly impact children and families forced to relocate to other communities.
  • Natural Disasters and Relocated Students With Special Needs: Recommendations for Receiving Schools : provides steps receiving schools can take to help relocated students with disabilities receive appropriate instruction and find success in their new schools.
• Psychological First Aid Kit from NCTSN: Psychological First Aid is an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disaster and terrorism.
  • Parent Tips for Helping Infants and Toddlers after Disasters  (PDF); also available in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian
  • Parent Tips for Helping Preschool-Age Children after Disasters  (PDF); also available in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian
• How to Support Your Child’s Resilience in a Time of Crisis : these guidelines, from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), can help parents and caregivers be prepared to respond to crises in ways that help their children be resilient.
  • How to Talk With Kids About Tragedies & Other Traumatic News Events
  • Live Crisis Drills in Schools: Focus on Children’s Needs ; also available in Spanish
• Early Childhood Development in Emergencies : UNICEF provides guidance to help train and support parents and caregivers prepare for and respond to disasters.
  • Early Child Development Kit for Emergencies  contains materials to help caregivers create a safe learning environment for young children aged 0—8, and offers children access to play, stimulation and early learning opportunities.
• School Safety and Crisis Resources from the National Association of School Psychologists.
  • Helping Children After a Natural Disaster: Tips for Parents and Educators  (PDF) (Infographic)
  • Natural Disaster Resources : developed to help schools and districts provide supports for their students and communities in the event of a natural disaster.
  • Relocating to a New School: Tips for Families : moving is challenging, especially when the move is sudden, with little or no preparation, when the family relocates to an unfamiliar area, and particularly when the family has been uprooted without resources.
  • New Schools for Students With Disabilities: Tips for Relocated Families : widespread destruction from a natural disaster can significantly impact children and families forced to relocate to other communities.
  • Natural Disasters and Relocated Students With Special Needs: Recommendations for Receiving Schools : provides steps receiving schools can take to help relocated students with disabilities receive appropriate instruction and find success in their new schools.
  • Recovery From Large-Scale Crises: Guidelines for Crisis Teams and Administrators : a resource developed to assist administrators and crisis teams in crisis response and recovery efforts following a large-scale disaster or crisis.

Recovery for Children and Families

• FEMA developed Helping Children Cope  because disasters can leave children and teens frightened, confused, and insecure. The site offers resources to help children recover.
  • Helping Children Cope  (PDF) 
  • Helping Children Cope After a Disaster YouTube video ; with sign language interpretation
• Disaster-Specific Pages -  National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
  • Wildfire Resources
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Hurricane Resources  available in a variety of languages including Spanish, Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese
    • After the Hurricane  (PDF): Helping Young Children Heal Tip Sheet
    • Trinka and Sam: The Rainy Windy Day  (PDF): also available in a variety of languages including Spanish, Japanese, Nepalese, and Creole 
  • Earthquake Resources
    • Parent Guidelines for Helping Children after an Earthquake  (PDF); also available in Creole  (PDF)
    • After the Earthquake  (PDF); Helping Young Children Heal Tip Sheet; also available in Japanese  (PDF)
    • Trinka and Sam: The Day the Earth Shook  (PDF); also available in Spanish, Japanese, Nepalese, and Creole 
  • Flood Resources
    • After a Crisis: Helping Young Children Heal ; also available in Spanish, Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian, Russian, German, Norwegian, and Romanian
    • Parent Tips for Helping Preschool-Age Children After Disasters ; also available in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian
  • Tornadoes Resources
    • Parent Guidelines for Helping Children after a Tornado
    • After the Tornado: Helping Young Children Heal ; also available in Spanish
    • Tornado Recovery for Kids  (PDF): offers information for children on ways they can help themselves and others after a tornado.
    • Tornado Response for Kids: Right after a Tornado
    • Tornado Response for Teens: Right after a Tornado : offers information to teens about how they may be feeling after a tornado and ways to cope with those feelings.
    • Tornado Recovery for Teens: Making Things Better : offers teens ways to help themselves and others after a tornado.
  • Tsunamis Tools and Links
    • After the Tsunami  (PDF): helping Young Children Heal Tip Sheet; also available in Japanese  (PDF)
    • Talking with Children about Tsunamis  (PDF)
• NCTSN Early Childhood Trauma : Ways early childhood trauma is unique, the scope of the problem, and symptoms and behaviors associated with exposure to trauma at an early age.
• Unaccompanied Minors Registry (UMR) , administered by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) , supports the ability to collect, store, report, and act on information related to children missing or lost as a result of a disaster.