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 terms) 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.