Emotional / Moral Development

Toddler < 6 years

• The child is content when all basic needs are satisfied and everything is in order.
• He cries when he is not comfortable.

Ameisli 6 - 8 years

• The child perceives üvia feelings more than üvia words. The sensation of feeling is very pronounced.
• The child strives for self-sufficiency: a love of adventure, enjoyment of physical activities, loose contacts with peers, recognition of rules and orders (authority-oriented), positive relationship with parents and leaders
• It is proud of its own achievements.

Young Learners 9 - 12 years

• The child has a positive attitude towards life, is enthusiastic and open to new things
• He is increasingly aware of his feelings and learns to express them verbally.
• He develops the ability to put himself in another person's shoes.
• A pronounced sense of truth and justice is developed.
• The need for acceptance and recognition among peers and leaders is present.
• An identification with one's gender and its role-appropriate behavior takes place.
• A sense of adventure is present.

Teens 13 - 16 years

• The teen is in the period of strong feelings and emotions.
• The feelings are unstable and often overtake the mind and will.
• He no longer wants to be treated like a child.
• He wants to experience the limit of the body. Sensory experiences are lived out intensely.
• A self-reflection takes place (search for the self).
• He often has outwardly a brusque, repulsive behavior, but inwardly a huge longing to be accepted and understood.
• There is a cliquing that takes place.

Young adults 17 - 20 years

• An emotional independence from parents and other adults is sought.

Cognitive Development

Toddler <6 years

• Blick contact
• 1. smile
• Perpetition
• First speaking

Ameisli 6 - 8 years

• referring to himself
• jumpy
• lives in the moment
• Exuberant imagination and fantasy - high creativity
• can concentrate for about 20 - 30 minutes
• Fairy tales and reality merge
• Can reverse action in mind
• Experiencing and thinking involves the whole child

Young learners 9 - 12 years

• Thirst for knowledge, asks for details like cause and effect
• Thinks vividly and concretely
• Increase in reality-based, scientific thinking
• Ready to learn areas of interest
• Thinking about one's own dangers
• True is what exists, what does not exist is not true

Teenie 13 - 16 years

• can draw logical conclusions
• sees connections
• questions critically
• Ability to be self-critical
• Tending towards black - white - painting
• True is what I see as true. I want to experience the truth itself / nachprüfen.

Faith Development

Toddler < 6 years

• Everything the child experiences with and in its parents, it converts into basic religious experiences. It adopts the form and content of their faith without thinking about it.
• The child inevitably forms an idea of God on the basis of its own sensory and emotional experiences.

Ameisli 6 - 8 years

• Sündenbewusstsein noch ausgeprägt
• Expressed concept of good and Böse - guilty conscience
• Interested in heaven, angels, eternity, birth, ...
• Miracles of Jesus and fairy tales are possible side by side
• Careful of figurative language, they take it one on one
• Child does not doubt the existence of God

Young Learners 9 - 12 years

• Ability to be clear about God's love and forgiveness - Ability to make a clear decision for Jesus
• Prefers true stories - identification with the hero
• Careful of miracle stories
• Often the child divides his life into a religious and everyday realm

Teen 13 - 16 years

• critical questioning
• examining and adopting or rejecting values
• searching for one's own faith
• "Do I want to be devout, even if the world is different?"
• Often new yes to Jesus

Young adults 17 - 20 years

• often crisis of faith among those raised religiously: Am I this way because I was raised this way, or do I want to be this way and live life accordingly?
• Partial adoption of values and behaviors of parents / educators

Image credits

• Title image: © Marvin Siefke  / pixelio.de