FOWLER S Theory of Spiritual Development James Fowler describes the development of faith as a force that gives meaning to a person

s life. He uses the term faith as a form of knowing, a way of being in relation to an ultimate enironment . Faith is a relational phenomenon he said. Fowler s theory and developmental stages were influenced by the work of Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erikson. The faith stages, Fowler said, are combination of knowledge and values. Toddlerhood belongs to the Intuitive-Projective faith. It is where Toddler imitates parental behaviors and attitudes about religion and spirituality. He simply has faith because the parents believe in it, but he has no real understanding of spiritual concept. If you ask the child why he believes in God, he would just say because mom and dad believe in Him. The toddler has a combination of images and beliefs given to him and mixed with the child s own experience and imagination. Thus, his perception of faith is not only based solely to the parents, but also as to what he sees about their faith. For example, parents believed in God and they always go to church, there will come to a point where the child will infer that those who come to church are believers of God while those who aren t are not believers of God.

Havighurst Robert Havighurst believed that learning is basic to life and that people continue to learn throughout life. He promoted the concept of developmental tasks in 1950s. A task which arises at or about a certain period in the life of an individual, successful achievement of which leads to his happiness and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness, disapproval of the society and difficulty in later tasks. Havighurst s developmental tasks provide framework that the nurse can use to evaluate a person s general accomplishments. Toddlers must accomplish the following: y y y y y y y y y Learning to walk Learning to take solid foods Learning to talk Learning to control the elimination of body wastes Learning sex differences and sexual modesty Achieving psychological stability Forming simple concepts of social and physical reality Learning to relate emotionally to parents, siblings and other people. Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a conscience.

Health promotion Toddlers tend to develop many upper respiratory and ear infection but usually toddlers visit for health maintenance and immunization. Immunization is very important so teach the parents to come back after a month after the immunization to receive another shot. Routine health maintenance visits also provide opportunities to support parents through the normal crisis of the toddler period. Encourage parents to promote healthy development of independence in their toddler. Listen to their concerns, ask questions to separate problem from emotional biases and provide guidelines on how to deal with specific problems. Safety: Accidents are the major cause of death in the children of all ages, especially accidental ingestion of substances (like medicine). Toddlers are at risk of aspirating small objects. Teach the parents how to aviod the accidents by putting all poisonous products away from children s reach. By the time the toddler is walking, tell parents to add safety barriers to staircases and others that may cause accidents to the child. Other accidents that occur frequently are burns, falls, drowning, and playground injuries. Accidents occur because of toddler s motor ability goes ahead of their judgment. Toddlers must be supervised at all times because since they do something without regard of their environment (like they have no idea that a car is nearing them as they run in the street). They should be placed in the back seat to avoid the airbag suffocation in case of accidents. They need to wear helmet when riding bike or motorcycle. Place siderails on bed, staircases to avoid accidents. When child starts to imitate cleaning, the equipments must not be sharp. Also, keep away matches for them not to get burned. Other accidents the child may have is animal bites. The parents must supervise them in playing their pets and not to approach strange animals (especially with potentially rabid animal).

Separation Anxiety The fear of separation from parents begin at 6 months and persist until preschool. For this reason, toddlers have difficulty accepting being separated from their primary care givers. Parents worry and cannot tolerate their kids crying when they leave. Most parents hire babysitters (or nannies) or leave their kids in day care centers when they go to work. It is important that the nannies (and day care center employees are consistent caregivers so that the child will not have a hard time to cope with change. It is important for the parents to explain that they are leaving but they will come back. It helps if parents say goodbye firmly because no matter how prepared the toddlers are, they will always cry. Prolonged goodbyes will only lead to more crying. Sneaking out prevents crying but it can strengthen the fear of abandonment so it should be discuraged.