Spiritual Development l4e4n

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT Spiritual beliefs are closely related to the moral and ethical portion of the self concept and must be considered as part of the child’s basic needs assessment .children need to have meaning, purpose and hope in their lives .Also, the need for confession and forgiveness is present even in very young children. Extending beyond religion, spiritual affects the whole person: mind, body and spirit. Flower has identified seven stages in the development of faith, four of which are closely associated with and parallel cognitive and psychological development on childhood. The stages in the spiritual development are as follows: STAGE- 0: UNDIFFERENTIATED Period: Infancy During this stage children have no concept of right or wrong, no beliefs, and no convictions to guide their behavior .However, the beginning of a faith is established with the development of basic trust through their relationships with the primary caregiver .This is to paralinguistic and preconception stage that embodies the trust between parents and infants. The primary care giver provides the infants and young child with a variety of experience that encourages the development of mutuality, trust, love and dependence, progressing to autonomy. STAGE- 1: INTUITIVE PROJECTIVE Period: Toddler hood and Pre school Period This stage primarily is a stage of imitating the behavior of others. Children imitate the religious gestures and behaviors of others without comprehending any meaning or significance to the activities. During the pre school years children assimilate some of the values and beliefs of their parents’. Parental attitudes towards moral codes and religious beliefs convey children what they consider to be good and bad. Children still imitate behavior at this age and follows parental beliefs as part of their daily lives, other than through understanding of their daily lives rather than through understanding of their basic concepts. STAGE- 2: MYTHICAL-LITERAL Period: School age Through the school age years, spiritual development parallels cognitive development and as closely related children’s experience and social interaction. Most of them have strong interest in religion during the school age years. The existence of a duty is accepted and petitions to an omnipotent being are important and expected to be answered; good behavior is rewarded, and bad behavior is punished. Their developing conscience for thoughts and matters and are able to articulate their faith. They may even question its validity. STAGE- 3: SYNTHETIC –CONVENTION Period: Adolescence As children approach adolescence, however they become aware of spiritual disappointments. They recognize that prayers are not always answered (at least on their own ) and may begin to abandon or modify some religious practices. They begin to reason, to question some of the establishment parental religious standards, and to drop or modify some religious practices. STAGE- 4: INDIVIDOUATING-REFLEXIVE Period: Adolescence and adult Adolescents become more skeptical and begin to compare the religious standards of their parents with those of others. They attempt to determine which to adopt and incorporate in their own set of values. They also begin to compare religious standards with the scientific view point. It is a time of searching rather than reaching. Adolescents are uncertain about many religious ideas but will not achieve profound insights until late adolescence period or early childhood.