Child Developme

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Katherine LyddonDiocesan Children’s Work Adviser

Developing and extending key skills for children’s ministry

Aim: to reflect on and extend understanding of how children develop, and to apply this understanding to interaction with children.

Learning outcomes:• to understand how children develop physically, mentally, socially, morally and spiritually.•To appreciate the range of learning styles and approaches that there can be with a group.•To reflect on personal experience of life and faith, and the effects of this experience on our ways of working with children.•To consider work with children in the light of some theories of human development.

Then and now

When you were seven:• What was your favourite food?• What was your favourite toy/game?• What was your favourite story?• What was your favourite TV/radio

programme?• Did you know any Christians?• What did you know about Christianity and

Christian faith?• Did you feel part of a church? How/why

not?

Then and nowNow they are seven:• What foods are popular today?

• What toys and games do they play with?

• What sorts of stories do they like?

• What TV programmes are the most popular with this age group?

• Do the children in your group know any other Christians other than you?

• What do they know about Christianity and Christian faith?

• Do they feel part of a church?

How/why not?

How children grow and develop

Think about the main characteristics found in children of the age you work with:

physical

spiritual intellectual

emotional

social

How children grow and develop

physical

spiritualintellectual

emotional

social

1. Do the charts help you to understand better how children develop? Why/why not?2. To what extent are they relevant to children with special needs?3. What insights has this exercise given into understand the children you work with?

How children grow and develop

1. Which methods and activities are most appropriate for the age range?

2. What are the implications for working with a mixed age range?

3. What are the dangers of expecting too much or too little of the children you work with? Which of these traps do you find it harder to avoid?

4. What other questions occur to you?

Motivation and needs

PHYSICAL NEEDS

(Food, oxygen, activity)

SAFETY NEEDS

(Protection from danger, feeling safe)

LOVING AND BELONGING NEEDS

(Giving and receiving love and respect, belonging to a group)

ESTEEM NEEDS

(Self-respect, confidence, independence, respect, recognition, attention, appreciation)

INTELLECTUAL NEEDS

(Knowledge, curiosity, exploration)

AESTHETIC NEEDS

(Beauty, balance, order)

SELF FULFILMENT

(Becoming a whole person)

Abraham Maslow

Motivation and needs

The need of love and security

The need for new experiences

The need for praise and recognition

The need for responsibility

Mia Kellmer Pringle

Focus on faith

Faith is……

1. How does your view of faith affect the way you work with children?

2. How does your experience of faith affect the way you work with children?

Focus on faith

Faith Development

1. How do these ideas relate to your own experience of your growth of faith and the faith development of others?

2. What are the implications for your work with children?

Focus on faith

John Westerhoff

• Experienced Faith• Affiliative Faith• Searching Faith• Owned faith or mature faith

Focus on faith

Alister Hardy

• ‘Religious Animals’

David Hay• Who am I?• Where have I come from?• Where am I going?• What am I meant to do?

1. How do these ideas relate to your own experience of your growth of faith and the faith development of others?

2. What are the implications for your work with children?

Focus on faith• Do you agree that your role is to accompany children on their journey of faith? Why/why not?• How can we encourage children to ask fundamental questions? • How can the church avoid making children feel that they should adopt adult religious language and activities rather than expressing faith in their

own way?• Are there any changes you would like to see in the experiences of worship offered to children in your group?

Biblical thoughtsMark 9:33-37, 10:13-16

What do these passages have to say about children’s place and the way Jesus saw children?

TheologiesPsalm 78:1-8, Matthew 18:1-5, Luke 13:34,35

• Children are the Church of tomorrow.

• Children are the church of tomorrow but need to lead a Christian life now.

• Children are as much a part of the church as the rest of the congregation.

Worship Mark 9:33-37, 10:13-16

Thank you for coming

Katherine LyddonDiocesan Children’s Work Adviser