As the community begins to grapple with the horror and tragedy of the Bondi shootings on Sunday, children will likely have questions. Parents may also be wondering how to talk to their little kids and teenagers about what happened.

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I am a clinical psychologist and researcher with a focus on children, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Here are some things to keep in mind when talking to children about the tragedy in Bondi (though many of these apply to any bad thing happening in the world).

When your child asks you a question, it's better to be honest, even if the answer is hard to give or you're worried about their reaction.

There is a lot of information and misinformation swirling around. Kids need to feel like they can trust what parents are saying to them.

It's also possible kids will have ideas in their heads about what happened that are even worse than the reality. So, it's important to find out what they think they already know (perhaps from things they have heard from friends or seen online) and gently correct any misinformation.

If kids want to ask questions, give them your full attention.

In a situation like this, we are all distressed. Unless you are listening carefully, you might miss the bit your child is actually worried about.

The information you know or might be interested in knowing is going to be different to the information your child wants to know. Follow their lead.

You will need to use your expert knowledge of your own child to know how to best "pitch" the information you provide. Here are examples of the sort of words you might use.

For preschool and very early school-aged children, you could say:

some bad men used guns to shoot some people near the beach in Sydney. The police and doctors are helping the people who were hurt and the men who did the shooting have been taken away so they can’t hurt anyone else.

For primary school children, you could say:

two men went to Bondi beach........

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