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

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 or you’re worried about their reaction.

There is a lot of misinformation swirling around. Children need to feel they can trust what their parents say.

It’s also possible kids will have ideas about what happened that are worse than the reality. So, it’s important to find out what they think they already know and gently correct any misinformation.

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-age children, you could say:

Some bad men used guns to shoot some people........

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