They are considered to be the forgotten population of those who suffer due to a soldier’s deployment. The children that are left behind while mom or dad is overseas go through the same issues experienced by their stay-at-home parent: feelings of anxiety, anger and depression are all too common. Called the ‘youngest draftees’ in a report published by the Defense Manpower Data Center, nearly 2 million children of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have been affected by the war.
   
A recent study showed that although military children of a deployed parent are more than twice as likely to suffer stress as other kids, not everything is bleak. The parent left behind is the key, according to the article published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
   
Parents, according to the study, can help children weather the challenges of deployment.
   
Left-behind parents are encouraged to plug into resources aimed at helping them cope, thus giving them the tools to pass that knowledge and support onto their children. And the help is out there, with organizations both online and right here in our own backyard, ready, with open arms, to give support to military families.

The Clover Park School District, the primary educational system serving children of Pierce County military families, has several such programs. The Student 2 Student Initiative helps military students transition from school to school. A student-led, school-managed program, kids are encouraged to confront transition challenges.
   
“We have a high population of military-impacted students at Lakes High School,” said Brian Laubach, principal. “Transitions are a normal aspect of military life, but they become much more complex and difficult for high school students. This program works because it pairs students together to share experiences and helps our new students better adapt to the Lakes community.”
   
The program involves a team of volunteer students, supervised by a school counselor, teacher or school staff member.
   
The school district also received a DoDEA grant (Department of Defense Education Activity) to promote student achievement at schools impacted by military structure changes. The district will use the three-year, $2 million grant to expand its assessments for the purpose of tracking student progress and diagnosing skills of new students.
   
“We are very fortunate that we received this grant,” said Keith Rittel, deputy superintendent. “We have more than 4,000 military-impacted students in our district. The financial support offered by this grant will strengthen the work and interventions we already have in place and will give us the opportunity to explore new options.”

SOAR, the Student Online Achievement Resources program, is an Internet application that provides military families with easy access to education information in order to ease their transition from location to location. At-home learning activities, message boards, resources and links to the Department of Education, are tools used to help both military children and their parents interact. Visit their Web site at www.militarystudent.org.

At www.operationwearehere.com, military parents and children are invited to get connected, share home-front stories and much more.

Advice
Supporting the child whose military parent is deployed

• Talk as a family before deployment.
• Include all family members in responsibilities while you, the soldier, are away. Think ‘bestow’ rather than ‘dump.’
• Ask children to continue to contribute to regular family projects and outings.
• Continue family traditions and consider starting new ones.
• Set up a calendar of events, letting the child know where the deployed parent is, what is happening in their life, so the child can track their absentee parent’s progress.
• No news is worse than bad news for a child. Children are more apt to worry about the parent at home, rather than the parent away. The parent at home needs to explain why they are cross, crying or depressed.
• Provide adequate time to thoroughly listen to the child. Have special listening/talking times mapped out during the week.
• —Source: Brooke Army Medical Center’s Department of Behavioral Medicine