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Grieving children need helpful tools to navigate their grief.

Coping mechanisms like a wind phone can be very therapeutic for grieving children.

The more support and tools a grieving child has the better.

In Otsuchi, Japan in 2010, something was built that touched those who were trying to navigate the difficult terrain of grief. Separate from the hustle and bustle of the city, or the noise of traffic jams connecting rural to urban counties, something wonderful was built in nature. They called it a wind phone.

It looks like something out of a Doctor Who episode featuring the time-traveling Tardis, but in actuality it mirrors what most phone booths looked like once upon a time. There is a phone inside, but there aren’t any connecting cords. You go into the booth just like long ago, pick up the rotary or push button phone, and simply say what you need to say to the person you lost. Fast forward to 2026, and there are hundreds of wind phones scattered all over, made by people who are trying to honor their late loved ones.

Talking to a loved one who has passed on can be highly therapeutic. Nature is also healing, so to be out in a phone booth, someplace where it is serene and quiet, even while your emotions on the inside are tumultuous, can be a cathartic experience.

Not everyone can go to Japan to experience a wind phone but anyone can recreate it in some form at home. The experience can be especially therapeutic for grieving children.

Surviving parents and family members can help grieving teens and children who are trying to navigate the death of their parent by creating a homemade wind phone in the space they have available to them. The goal is not to try to convince children that their late parent will actually answer; it is a coping tool instead to help them grieve. They are going to have hard days when they really want and need to talk to their late parent. This is one of the most therapeutic ways they can do that.

If you have a backyard, dedicate some space and work with what you’ve got to create the phone booth part. If you don’t have access to affordable materials, then at least have a dedicated space in the best part of nature and quiet you can access in your backyard to place an old rotary or push-button phone. Let the grieving children and teens know that this phone is available to them any time they wish to speak to their late parent. It is a safe space where they can say what they need to say in those hard moments in private. If you don’t have a backyard, then use the space you have inside to dedicate a homemade wind phone. Place some plants or trees near a special dedicated corner or area where the grieving child or teen can get some quiet special time to use the phone on difficult grief-triggering days.

For younger children, you can use a toy phone as a homemade wind phone. This can be deeply comforting for them, especially if they used to play with that same toy phone with their parent.

It is important to explain to the grieving child or teen up front that this phone will not deliver an answer back from their late parent in the way they might deeply wish. It is more for them to feel as if they are still sharing their life—their emotions, their pain, or even happy days—with their late parent, as if they were still here. It is also a helpful therapeutic way to find a peaceful connection in the midst of their grief.

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smithsonianmag.com/innovation/what-are-wind-phones-and-how-do-they-help-with-grief-180985113/ accessed February 19, 2026.

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