Stage 1: Self Awareness

This stage focuses on the Primary school years (ages 5-12). Important elements for relationship development and understanding include:

• focus on friendships and relationships outside the family circle
• increasing awareness of the complexity of relationships
• development of empathy towards others and their emotions
• the onset of puberty and the changing dynamic of friendship
• a growing understanding of human sexuality.

‘It is in the family that children, from the tenderest age, can learn to perceive the meaning of God, also thanks to the teaching and example of their parents: to live in an atmosphere marked by God’s presence.’ Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 2011