Spiritual development and young children

SUMMARY Spirituality is discussed in the areas of psychology, religion and education, with special emphasis on how spirituality is viewed in regard to young children. Spirituality is defined as an innate ability to show awareness or consciousness of the surrounding world shown through wonder, a sense of compassion and love towards this world and everything in it, and for some people a relationship with a transcendent being, who can also be immanent in the individual. From this definition it appears that everyone has a spiritual aspect which may or may not have religious connotations. Maria Montessori's (1870–1952) and Rudolf Steiner's (1861–1925) views on spirituality are discussed with their beliefs that spirituality is innate in a person and that spiritual growth must be nurtured. Finally, early findings of an ongoing qualitative research project using Grounded Theory Analysis about 56 young children's spirituality in four preschools and kindergartens are described. It is anticipated that the final result of this research project will be a theory of spiritual development in young children, an area which has not previously been researched where young children are concerned.