Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

Major Sensitive Periods

in the first plane of development

The major Sensitive Periods in the first plane of development are:

1. Order
2. Language
3. Movement
4. Social behavior and development
5. Assimilation of images
6. Small objects
7. Refinement of senses

ORDER 2 yo., the climax for order

Quote:
A very importantorder ()..in the first months of his existence.
Maria Montessori, Secret of Childhood, chapter 7
The need for order exists from birth. This brings security,
understanding, joy and peace. Silvana Montanaro said the child is a
stranger in a strange land and he needs points of reference. These points of
reference will help him orientate himself.
External order brings internal order. Order is imperative to give sense
and logic to things. Even a new born needs to see order around him and
needs to see us respect order. This is like a special gift to him that helps him
understand the environment and incarnate the order. Later, in the second
plane of development, they will forget order and they will appear messy, but
inside the order was incarnated and the child will be able to make use of it
later on.

===========================================================================================================================================

1
Stefania Voicu

Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

Quote:
The adults pleasure for order is not the same as for the child..fish
swim. Maria Montessori, (de gasit citat)
A Montessori environment respects the childs need for order by
preparing an orderly environment, with materials that respect the
characteristics of every plane of development, that are arranged in
sequences etc.

LANGUAGE
Quote:
Every child bursts out with of the second year of life. Maria
Montessori, (de gasit)
This sensitive period starts before birth when the child starts to move
the muscles around the mouth when his mother speaks. When born, the
environment must be abundant in language as the child has no limit in
absorbing language, any language for that matter. This means that if the
child is exposed to different languages now, he will be able to absorb and
incarnate them as easily as the mother tongue.
We should be careful how we speak to children. We need to speak
slowly and without restriction, use the appropriate words for every situation
and dont spoil the words (diminutives). Sometimes, adults think that certain
words are difficult for children to understand or pronounce, and thats why
they tend to use different words in situations that require a specific word. It
will a longer tie for the child to pronounce hippopotamus thanm hippo or
cat, but they will do it eventually.
Language is most important as its communication among groups of
people. It creates and nurtures relationships.

Quote:
We, the Assistance to Infancy,.development of language. Maria
Montessori, Absorbent Mind, chapter 11 (de gasit)

MOVEMENT

===========================================================================================================================================

2
Stefania Voicu

Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

In the first years of life the child passes through many kinds of
movement phases: rotation, reaching and grasping, slithering, crawling,
pulling up, cruising, walking and running (1 2yo), jumping (2-3 yo),
humping (3-4 yo).
The burning desire to continue movement is characteristic for the first plane
of development. Now, the child observes the way adults move and learn how
to move by doing that (exp: Silvanas knee problem)

Quote:
..movement is of great importance for a child. It is the functional
incarnation of thecreative energy which brings man to the perfection of his
species. Through movement, he acts upon his external environment and
thus carries out his own personal mission in the world...Movement is thus an
essential factor in intellectual growth which depends upon the impressions
received from outside. Maria Montessori, Secret of Childhood, chapter 15

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Quote:
...he imitates not because someone has told him to do so, but
because of a deep inner need which he feels. Maria Montessori,
Absorbent Mind, chapter 14
A child will imitate behaviors and actions in order to incarnate and
become a person of his own time and place. He imitates because is what he
sees being done. He has no other reasons. We would not be able to become
a person of our own time and place if we wouldnt understand social
behavior, and social behavior is what the child sees around him and what he
incarnates. The child is attentive to everything we do but social behavior is of
extreme interest to him.
As a starter point, weaning is a moment of great importance. Now the
child can sit without assistance and can see the world from a different
perspective. They can see people repeating behaviors everyday and get
interested in imitating and following that behavior. Also, weaning can overlap
breastfeeding so now its a good period to learn appropriate behavior.

===========================================================================================================================================

3
Stefania Voicu

Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

When we see that intense interest in learning social behaviors we

should allow it and encourage it by preparing the right environment.

ASIMILATION OF IMAGES
Quote:
A child has a sensitive period which lasts until he is almost five years
old and which enables him to assimilate images from his environment in a
truly prodigious fashion. Maria Montessori, Secret of Childhood, chapter 9
For you, the most important part of this study is observation. Observe
little babies; look at their eyes, and you will see that they stare at the same
thing for a long time. This means that the child takes images from the
environment with great energy and power. The unconscious urges him to
study the environment. The child takes in everything around through the
senses, he absorbs the environment through his senses with great energy.
The child is a worker, a diligent observer, he looks straight at things, he
stares at them for a long time, he is interested in getting to know the
environment. It may be a flower he stares at, absorbing its image. This work
gives him happiness and peace, because in doing so he is following the urge
of nature. Maria Montessori, lecture on observation, Communications,
1978
This is the reason we need to permit children to see and observe the
environment. This is why they need to be placed face out in the pram or
stroller.
However, in order to complete the knowledge of a given object, the child
needs also the tactile experience of that given object. In 0 to 3 they need to
assimilate images so that in 3 to 6 thy can classify.

SMALL OBJECTS
There comes a time when you see the child really interested in small
objects.

Quote:
===========================================================================================================================================

4
Stefania Voicu

Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

From the beginning of its second year a child...becomes interested in

tiny objects that escape our notice. Maria Montessori, Secret of Childhood,
chapter 9
This is a particular, important period and it should be treated with the
same respect as all others. We need to pay special attention to the
environment when we create it and consider this sensitive period. The child
will always be interest in small details and he will find them in the
environment.

REFINEMENT OF SENSES
This is a period that can be especially observed from 3 to 6 years. In 0
to 3 the child needs to experience to his senses (touch, smell, sound). We
prepare the ground for refinement.

OBSTACLES
If we dont know about the Sensitive Periods we will not prepare a good
environment for the child. If we dont recognize the facets we will interrupt
the acquisition.
When the Sensitive Periods are interrupted we will see some rather troubled
behavior (crying, tantrums, difficult behavior etc.)
When this happens we can understand that the HORME pushing from the
inside ha nothing to work with. The obstacle becomes the unprepared
environment or the fact that the child is constantly interrupted.
Montessori said:
A sensitive period can then reveal itself in the childs violent reaction. We
look upon this as a kind of senseless desperation calling it a tantrum. But
in reality it is the expression of an inner disturbance or of an unsatisfied
need that has created a degree of tension. It represents an effort of the soul
to ask a question or to defend itself. Secret of Childhood, chapter 7

THE ADULT ROLE

Education is education only when its an aid to the childs potential.
===========================================================================================================================================

5
Stefania Voicu

Montessori Pedagogy

Sensitive Periods

===========================================================================================================================================

We need to get the scientific knowledge and this will help us prepare the
environment in which the child can find solutions and possibilities to work
with.
E. M Standing, in his book The life and work of Maria Montessori, he used
an analogy to explain the thwart. This was the analogy of the stich: if you
stich a sweater and we loose a stich we can still wear the sweater but it will
never be as strong as if he would have been with all the stiches in place.
Montessori said:
If no help is given to a child, if his environment is neglected, his psychic life
will be in constant danger. ...We must assist him from his earliest
moments...in a delicate respect for the outward manifestations of this
development and in providing those means necessary for his formation
which he cannot obtain by his own efforts alone. Secret of Childhood,
chapter 7
If no help is given to the child and the environment is neglected than his
psychic life is in danger.
Montessori says that we must assist the child from the earliest age and not
when they are able to sit and listen to us.
The adult and the environment must be in cohesion, in collaboration because
if the child is left alone in the environment, he will not be able to take what
he needs.

===========================================================================================================================================

6
Stefania Voicu