st. Jean Piaget's model of cognitive development is then used to assess the validity of Nagy and Anthony's claims. These classic works are followed by the contemporary research of Barbara Kane as she examines how Nagy and Anthony are viewed today. Gerald P. Koocher's empirical analysis of conceptualization, and his discussion of the influence of culture is also examined. Finally the work of Tallmer et al on socio-economic status as a factor, and Tamm and Granqvist's examination of gender as a factor is discussed.
             Maria H. Nagy's classic study (1948) of Hungarian children aged three to ten is perhaps the best starting point in examining children's concepts of death. Nagy used interviews and had children make drawings of death to study the phenomenon, and she found that children pass through three major stages in their understanding of death. In stage one, which is present until the age of five, children understand death as separation and a state of being less alive. [4] The child does not however, understand that death involves the complete cessation of life, nor that it is final and non reversible. In stage two, which is between ages five and nine, Nagy suggests that children may personify death as a grim reaper, a skeleton, a ghost or shadow. Also, death is seen as being final, however its inevitability has not been realized, so the child believes that one can elude death, perhaps by escaping the clutches of the grim reaper. By the third stage which is from age nine or ten, the child realizes that death is both final and inevitable. [4]
             Another pioneer in the understanding of children's conceptions of death is Sylvia Anthony (1940, 1972) who used interviews, tests and parental diaries to study the developmental process. Anthony believed children passed through five developmental stages, ranging from ignorance about death, to a complete understanding which included a recogniti...