Developing children's spirituality in early childhood
Contribution to the Protection of Children against Violence and the promotion of their integral well-being
Conceptual Framework and Considerations
This content describes the main conceptual areas that provide the foundation of this toolkit. This includes five blocks that help to understand the importance of children's spiritual life and development in the early years of life in order to contribute to the prevention of violence and to the promotion of children's well-being.
- The Dignity of the Child and the Rights of the Child: frames the understanding of the child, their development and well-being from an ethical perspective of care, reverence for life and the affirmation of the inherent and sacred dignity of the child. This is found in all major religious and spiritual traditions, as well as child rights legislation.
- Child Development: presents a child development approach that places spirituality as a central part of development, involves a broad spectrum of support systems, including but not limited to family, school and faith communities, to ensure that children achieve their full potential. It states that children's development needs to be supported by interventions that address children's needs, such as health, nutrition, early learning, responsive care, and safety and security.
Responsive care refers to the ability of the child's caregivers - whether parents, grandparents or teachers - to perceive and respond to the child's signals in a timely manner, without neglect or overstimulation.
- Early Childhood Development - The Lifelong Capabilities Foundation: it presents the critical importance of the early years of life for children's lifelong learning and well-being as an essential period of life where parents and caregivers play an essential role in providing opportunities for children's development. It brings reflections from different religions and spiritual traditions on the sacredness of the child in early childhood.
- Spirituality and Children: helps to create an understanding of spirituality that respects the different approaches in each religious tradition and of non-religious people. It presents how spirituality is part of children's development and well-being and proposes four categories of children's spiritual abilities.
- Violence against Children: provides an overview of how direct and structural violence affects children's development, particularly in the early years, and prioritizes support for parents and caregivers, changing norms and life skills for its prevention.
The framework also presents a praxis approach and model for developing children's early childhood development spirit, emphasizing the role of faith communities, parents and caregivers as key enablers. It ends with an overview of the benefits of spirituality to help protect children from violence, cure it, and promote children's well-being.
- e-Capacitação
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- Facilitadores em e-Espiritualidade
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- 3ª Sessão-Módulo 1
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- Spirituality - Concepts and Considerations
- e-Capacitação
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- e-Spirituality in childhood
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- Spirituality in childhood
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- Spirituality - Concepts and Considerations