Sensitive Periods in Development
The child's absorbent mind (0 - 6) is driven by what Maria Montessori identified as
Sensitive Periods in development.
Sensitive periods make all the difference in learning!
A sensitive period is a time of a spontaneous, often intense or irresistible, impulse toward or interest in certain objects and activities. During a sensitive period the ability to acquire new skills (in that particular area) is at a peak. Learning is spontaneous, joyful, and virtually effortless.
When a child is in a sensitive period in a particular area, it can be a time of
seemingly magical possibilities in terms of learning.
But, a sensitive period does not last forever. It starts, peaks, and is gone, often to be replaced by another quite different one. If certain kinds of learning does not occur during the child's sensitive period for it,
that skill will never be acquired with such ease, as is the case with walking, talking, reading and writing.
As Montessori said about a sensitive period, "It comes for a moment
but its benefits last for a lifetime."
Sensitive Periods in development.
Sensitive periods make all the difference in learning!
A sensitive period is a time of a spontaneous, often intense or irresistible, impulse toward or interest in certain objects and activities. During a sensitive period the ability to acquire new skills (in that particular area) is at a peak. Learning is spontaneous, joyful, and virtually effortless.
When a child is in a sensitive period in a particular area, it can be a time of
seemingly magical possibilities in terms of learning.
But, a sensitive period does not last forever. It starts, peaks, and is gone, often to be replaced by another quite different one. If certain kinds of learning does not occur during the child's sensitive period for it,
that skill will never be acquired with such ease, as is the case with walking, talking, reading and writing.
As Montessori said about a sensitive period, "It comes for a moment
but its benefits last for a lifetime."
Sensitives Periods Identified by Montessori
As you read the following list you will most likely be struck by the age range for each sensitive period.
In many cases it will be much earlier than you might have expected!
Order - A strong desire for consistency, repetition, and established routines including clearly established ground rules. Children can become very frustrated and even deeply disturbed by disorder. For an adult, order might be a convenience, but for a child it is a basic need of life which helps him feel more in control, and thus, secure and at peace. Order is the child's foundation. It enables her to make sense of her world. It begins to reveal itself as the child reaches the 2nd year and lasts for about two years. (2 - 4 years old)
* The importance of order is often overlooked.
Movement - The first sensitive period for movement is during the first year of life when random movements become coordinated and more controlled: grasping, touching, turning, crawling, walking. (0-2 years old)
The second sensitive period for movement begins during the second year and lasts for about two years with special interest in more precise movements such as balancing on a line, walking on a curb, board, or top of a wall, etc., with increasing amounts of perfection. (2 1/2 - 4 years old)
* Movement is also key for mental development - especially if the action is connected with the mental activity going on.
Manners - Special interest in grace and courtesy, acts of kindness, imitating polite and considerate behavior, doing things the correct way (opening and closing a door, carrying a chair, setting a table), imitating what adults do. (2 1/2 - 4 years old)
Tiny Objects - Fascination with small objects and minute details - so small they are often missed by adults.
(2 - 4 1/2 years old)
Music - Drawn to rhythm, melody, and singing by others and self. Interested in pitch. (2-6 years old)
Refinement of the Senses - Heightened fascination with sensorial experiences (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound), and heightened attention to differences in sensory stimulation, resulting in increasingly refined sensorial discriminations. Comparing, contrasting, and sequencing are compelling activities. Also during this time, there is a keen appreciation of beauty. (3 - 4 1/2 years old)
* This is an especially important time for children. Children take in information about the world through all their senses. At first the brain pays attention to all stimuli. Over time the brain develops the ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant sensory stimuli. By about 4 1/2 years old the brain has finished much of its decision making regarding which stimuli are important and worth attending to.
Language - The sensitive period for language has already begun before the child can speak, and lasts longer than any other sensitive period. Think of babies watching the adult’s mouth as they speak, the child spontaneously repeating what was said, vocabulary and comprehension that keeps expanding. (0-6 years old)
* Deprivation of language stimuli during this period results in severe language defects. Without stimulation
the language processing areas of the brain literally waste away.
Writing - At first a purely sensorial interest - the shape of letters, the feel of letters, the sound that each letter makes. Then comes a desire to attempt to reproduce letters with pencil and paper. (3 1/2 - 4 1/2 years old)
* In Montessori’s time the children who “exploded” into writing were the ones who had the opportunity to learn the shapes by feeling them and who knew their corresponding sounds.
* Writing usually precedes reading.
Reading - Keen interest in “what it says,” recognizing letters and words on signs and other places, wanting to learn the sounds each letter makes and to form words from them, asking how particular words are spelled, working tirelessly! (3-5 years old)
* In Montessori’s time the children who “exploded” into reading were the ones who - just like with writing - had the opportunity to learn the shapes of letters by feeling them and who knew their corresponding sounds.
Math - Especially interested in counting everything, rote counting, number recognition, number writing, sorting, addition, subtraction, even multiplication and division. Shapes are also of of great interest. (4-6 years old)
Spacial Relationships - A passion for puzzles, mazes, map making of familiar places, building, and other kinds of activities that use and further develop spacial skills. (4-6 years old)
Because of the incredibly absorbent nature of the young child's mind with its powerful sensitive periods, Montessori emphasized the importance of the learning environment, what she called the Prepared Environment.
As you read the following list you will most likely be struck by the age range for each sensitive period.
In many cases it will be much earlier than you might have expected!
Order - A strong desire for consistency, repetition, and established routines including clearly established ground rules. Children can become very frustrated and even deeply disturbed by disorder. For an adult, order might be a convenience, but for a child it is a basic need of life which helps him feel more in control, and thus, secure and at peace. Order is the child's foundation. It enables her to make sense of her world. It begins to reveal itself as the child reaches the 2nd year and lasts for about two years. (2 - 4 years old)
* The importance of order is often overlooked.
Movement - The first sensitive period for movement is during the first year of life when random movements become coordinated and more controlled: grasping, touching, turning, crawling, walking. (0-2 years old)
The second sensitive period for movement begins during the second year and lasts for about two years with special interest in more precise movements such as balancing on a line, walking on a curb, board, or top of a wall, etc., with increasing amounts of perfection. (2 1/2 - 4 years old)
* Movement is also key for mental development - especially if the action is connected with the mental activity going on.
Manners - Special interest in grace and courtesy, acts of kindness, imitating polite and considerate behavior, doing things the correct way (opening and closing a door, carrying a chair, setting a table), imitating what adults do. (2 1/2 - 4 years old)
Tiny Objects - Fascination with small objects and minute details - so small they are often missed by adults.
(2 - 4 1/2 years old)
Music - Drawn to rhythm, melody, and singing by others and self. Interested in pitch. (2-6 years old)
Refinement of the Senses - Heightened fascination with sensorial experiences (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound), and heightened attention to differences in sensory stimulation, resulting in increasingly refined sensorial discriminations. Comparing, contrasting, and sequencing are compelling activities. Also during this time, there is a keen appreciation of beauty. (3 - 4 1/2 years old)
* This is an especially important time for children. Children take in information about the world through all their senses. At first the brain pays attention to all stimuli. Over time the brain develops the ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant sensory stimuli. By about 4 1/2 years old the brain has finished much of its decision making regarding which stimuli are important and worth attending to.
Language - The sensitive period for language has already begun before the child can speak, and lasts longer than any other sensitive period. Think of babies watching the adult’s mouth as they speak, the child spontaneously repeating what was said, vocabulary and comprehension that keeps expanding. (0-6 years old)
* Deprivation of language stimuli during this period results in severe language defects. Without stimulation
the language processing areas of the brain literally waste away.
Writing - At first a purely sensorial interest - the shape of letters, the feel of letters, the sound that each letter makes. Then comes a desire to attempt to reproduce letters with pencil and paper. (3 1/2 - 4 1/2 years old)
* In Montessori’s time the children who “exploded” into writing were the ones who had the opportunity to learn the shapes by feeling them and who knew their corresponding sounds.
* Writing usually precedes reading.
Reading - Keen interest in “what it says,” recognizing letters and words on signs and other places, wanting to learn the sounds each letter makes and to form words from them, asking how particular words are spelled, working tirelessly! (3-5 years old)
* In Montessori’s time the children who “exploded” into reading were the ones who - just like with writing - had the opportunity to learn the shapes of letters by feeling them and who knew their corresponding sounds.
Math - Especially interested in counting everything, rote counting, number recognition, number writing, sorting, addition, subtraction, even multiplication and division. Shapes are also of of great interest. (4-6 years old)
Spacial Relationships - A passion for puzzles, mazes, map making of familiar places, building, and other kinds of activities that use and further develop spacial skills. (4-6 years old)
Because of the incredibly absorbent nature of the young child's mind with its powerful sensitive periods, Montessori emphasized the importance of the learning environment, what she called the Prepared Environment.
