Birth to One Year – Moral and Spiritual Development

The standard for right and wrong, as well as good and bad for an infant is the approval or disapproval of other family members otherwise infants have no idea about good and bad. So those people that the infant loves and depends on should show approval of what is good in their behavior and Vice Versa. The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.

Up to the age of one year, a baby is not capable of moral or spiritual understanding and can therefore not be trained in anything that comes properly under these headings. However their personality can be nurtured through the environment and family norms. These should include genuine warmth of feeling, sincere affection, peace, gentleness, kindness and understanding. These factors enable natural moral and spiritual development and it will blossom and flower making the child ready to understand its implications at a later age. The child develops conscience and he/she begins to understand what the people he/she loves think is good or bad, and what they expect.

At one year, most babies become trustful, loving, responsive to parent approval and disapproval. The child realises that obedience is expected of him/her through mild and uniformly repeated correction. The child is not yet old enough to understand moral and spiritual values or abstract ideas.

The parent should teach kindness by surrounding the baby with kindness. Try not to expose the child to situations which instil fear and hatred.