Dr Maria Montessori spent her entire lifetime dedicated to and discovering how children learn. In doing so, Montessori observed that children are driven to learn by a unique urge not possessed by adults and that this learning is unselective and begins at birth. Her concepts, known as the ‘absorbent mind’ and the ‘sensitive periods’ are essential to our understanding of this learning process and how we, as adults, can recognise that “the child has a mind able to absorb knowledge. He has the power to teach himself”. It is this principle that underpins all of Montessori’s philosophy and method of education and is one that is greatly fascinating to explore – from birth, the child is constructing himself.

The Absorbent Mind

Montessori discovered that children do not learn in the same way that adults learn; that they possess within them a super form of intelligence or memory that allows them to absorb information unselectively from stimuli that surround them. The information absorbed allows the child to create, or incarnate, himself in his environment and “what the child had absorbed, remains, a final ingredient of his personality”. Montessori likened the absorbent mind of the child to that of a sponge, which absorbs water unselectively from its surroundings. Much like a sponge which “if you place [it] in water it will soak up the water, whether it is clean or dirty” the child’s mind “will absorb, without effort, whatever it finds in the environment”. Montessori was a fervent believer that the child makes the man, that what the child learnt in its early years would determine the man (or woman) it would become, and that, as an adult, was responsible for the world. Therefore, if a young child absorbs the negative as well as the positive from its surroundings, great care must be taken to limit or control the negative aspects so they are not detrimental to the child in later, adult life. Unlike a sponge, which can be squeezed and dried to eradicate all the absorbed water, what is absorbed by the child’s mind remains there permanently, fixed and unalterable like a developed photograph.

However, although permanently part of a child’s mind, the information absorbed is not just stored, but transforms the mind. It is insatiable and can hold much more than a sponge can, without ever reaching saturation. Montessori’s own definition of this illustrates the child’s mind as like a muscle – that grows and is strengthened each time it is flexed and used.

Sensitive Periods

This process of learning and absorption, Montessori observed, does not happen all at once. Rather, as she discovered through her work, there are certain times in a child’s life when he or she is most receptive to certain stimuli and it is during these times – called sensitive periods – that the child is most pre-dispositioned to learn a certain concept or group of skills. These sensitive periods are vital windows of opportunity when a child will focus all of his efforts on learning from specific stimuli around him. They “are important because at no other time in a child’s life will she be able to acquire a particular characteristic so easily and well. Once the window of opportunity closes it becomes much more difficult and sometimes impossible for her to acquire these abilities”.

Montessori identified six main sensitive periods – to order, language, refinement of the senses, movement, small objects and social awareness. It is important to recognise when a child is passing through or is within a certain sensitive period. Children will normally demonstrate that they are in a sensitive period by their behaviour and the only way to ascertain this is by observation of the child – something Montessori used throughout her working practice, with its roots coming from her scientific background.

How you can tell when a child is in a sensitive period

The ways in which a child will demonstrate they are in a sensitive period are the same for all sensitive periods, and will include a complete fascination with an action, or object and repetition of an action, something which may seem pointless and nonsensical to an adult but to a child is forming his opinion and perception of the world around him. This will be done with immense concentration and determination, and a child if allowed the time to do this, will carry on until he is finished, whether that be half an hour or all day, repeating, exploring, the same task. Through each repetition they are learning through their senses how the world around them is constructed, and are constructing themselves. Montessori commented “Sometimes very small children in a proper environment develop a skill and exactness in their work that can only surprise us”. It also has to be remembered that it is something the child has to do – he is driven to it and by it by the divine urge he possesses.

Although guidelines can be given with regards to likely ages at which each sensitive period may happen, the adult must take his or her lead from the child – the ages are not a definitive guide. Also, a child may be in more than one sensitive period at the same time, so this possibility must not be ruled out just because they are demonstrating behaviour in congruence with another sensitive period.

In studying the sensitive periods of order, language, refinement of the senses, movement, small objects and social awareness, it is also important to understand what constitutes each of these.

Order
The sensitivity to order, which is not necessarily the first sensitive period, can begin as early as from birth. It is one where the child, seeing the same objects and people every day, makes sense of the sensorial impressions around him. In his limited experience of the world, his dependence on the environment is much greater than we think. He develops a sense of order and routine and when this is disrupted the child can be very upset. Also, if their surroundings or items within their surroundings were to be changed on a daily basis, the child would not be able to settle. Once a child can move around, this is more pronounced as they can see more where things are kept and thus should remain. They will have a great desire also to keep their environment in order and will be driven to put things in their normal place. However, this will only happen if order already exists in their surroundings, so great care must be taken to ensure this. The child will then take great joy and love in maintaining this order. Montessori remarks: “A child [aged two] notices a lack of order in the least details which escape the notice of adults and even older children”.

Language
The sensitivity to language also begins around birth. In fact, modern research has discovered that babies hear within the womb and seem to grow accustomed to their mother’s voice even before birth. When born, this continues as the baby is naturally drawn to this voice and is focused on and fascinated by the movements of the mouth when talking. From a very young age he will try to copy the movements himself and will often poke his tongue out or move his mouth. The child is drawn to the human voice as if it is the only sound that exists. It does not imitate the other noises around him such as cars, washing machine or animals. When he starts forming his own sounds, words and word endings, it emerges that he is not just hearing and repeating words, he is learning the language(s) that has surrounded him since birth. A child, seemingly effortlessly, by the age of five or six when this sensitive period ends, has mastered greatly the intricacies, patterns and grammar of his native language. For an adult to learn a language with this amount of mastery it would take many years and/or intensive language study and lots of hard work.

Small Objects
Another sensitivity is that to small objects and fine detail. This period often starts at about age one, when a child can move and reach for objects. In this sensitive period, a child often picks up and reaches for the smallest of objects, some which may be barely visible to the adult eye: “We might even say he is interested in what is invisible, or at least in what is found on the fringes of consciousness”. The child may place the objects in their mouth or just seem totally fascinated by them. This may seem incomprehensible to the adult observer but it is a process where the child’s perception and experiences of those objects, and his focussed attention towards them, is helping him build up an unconscious awareness of the world around him, in intricate detail, with each experience being recorded to his supreme memory.

Refinement of Senses
The sensitive period pertaining to the refinement of a child’s senses is one where in today’s world it can be quite challenging for a child to do this with ease. A child in this period would learn through its senses from birth by touching, seeing, smelling, putting things in his mouth, banging objects together and to really refine a sense, this activity really needs to be focussed. A sense is best refined in isolation, with a quality experience, but in today’s world children are bombarded by sensorial overload, in toys, television and video games to name a few. This leads to them lacking in concentration and they can present ‘symptoms’ of hyperactivity, chaos and restlessness. Parents and adults who surround children have also become less tolerant and more paranoid about allowing their children to perform certain tasks, feeling that they are making too much noise, doing things children shouldn’t or might expose themselves to something which may cause them harm. Toys that look and seem exciting to the adults that purchase them also tend to have so many different features, that the child is unable to concentrate on one particular aspect and may easily become bored.

Movement
The penultimate sensitive period, to movement, again is one that starts in the first year of life as the child learns to roll over on to its stomach, push themselves along, crawl, walk, climb, run and also to perfect these with accuracy and ease. Again, adults impose restrictions on this development, mainly unknowingly and innocently. A child who is put into shoes too early, has clothes that are not big enough to allow freedom of movement, or a child that is conveniently kept in a pushchair or buggy when they are more than capable to walk is held back and his movement skills can be hindered greatly by this. Another movement that a young child likes to do is to climb: “By nature man is an explorer, and it is only by the discovery of the seemingly insignificant details that he advances”. A child who has learnt to crawl and not yet walk will occupy themselves for hours going up and down the stairs unaided. In doing this he or she is exploring and finding out new things, new ways to look at the world, forming the concept of going up and going down. In addition to this, the child is most probably learning many other things that the adult cannot comprehend. Yet adults tend to worry that the child will injure themselves and so they constantly interrupt this exploration or bring it to an abrupt end. Montessori claimed that restricted movement can actually affect the mental and intellectual development of the child and can have long lasting effects on the child’s personality. A child who is constantly held back and restricted can become cautious and not adventurous whereas a child who is given the freedom to move becomes happy and confident. One way to overcome this is to prepare the environment available to the child so that it is safe enough to allow them to explore with no real danger to themselves.

Social Awareness
The remaining sensitive period, that of social awareness is one where children learn to interact with each other. Montessori felt this was extremely important and stated that “the higher levels of perfection all come through social life…There is among children an evident sense of community. This rests on the noblest feelings and creates unity in the group”. She grouped children in wider age brackets than are found commonly in other nurseries and schools. These children thrive when placed in mixed age groups and so in Montessori nurseries, children between three and six are all together, something that is also known as vertical grouping. This enables the children to learn many different skills and interact on different levels. The younger children learn to emulate their older peers. The older children develop a sense of nurturing and become teachers themselves to the other children around them, particularly the younger ones. Children in this sensitive period learn interaction, conversation and acceptable behaviour skills. They learn from each other right and wrong and are more likely to listen and learn from another child setting a good example than from an adult telling them what is right and wrong. Children also learn to work as a team and co-operate with each other, accepting each other’s differences and individual worth. They are, through this social development, forming the men and women who will be responsible for the society and world, as Montessori stated.

BEYOND THE ABSORBENT MIND

Once children reach the age of six and beyond, they enter into another period - that of cultural refinement. In her book To Educate the Human Potential, Dr Montessori writes about the acquisition of culture as being the next plane of development for the child, after the absorbent mind phase, for the child between the ages of 6 and 12, where she also devised a method of elementary education. She writes: “… we recognize that nature has made this a period for the acquisition of culture, just as the former [3-6 years] was for the absorption of environment”.

Dr Montessori uses the analogy of sowing seeds to the child that will grow and will later germinate, and that this is what every teacher of children must be concerned with: “The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination”. She also writes:

Knowledge can be best given where there is eagerness to learn, so this is the period when the seed of everything can be sown, the child’s mind being like a fertile field, ready to receive what will germinate into culture. But if neglected during this period, or frustrated in its vital needs, the mind of the child becomes artificially dulled, henceforth to resist imparted knowledge. Interest will no longer be there if the seed be sown too late…

Montessori continues to explain that what is offered should be as wide and as varied as possible, and not limited. She states: “at six years of age all items of culture are received enthusiastically, and later these seeds will expand and grow”. She believed that if seeds began to be sown during the absorbent mind phase, from birth to six (and more relevantly for the children aged three to six), when the child unselectively learns from his environment, it would be easier to introduce further knowledge once they pass out of this phase: “Let us give him [the child] a vision of the whole universe”

At Stillbrook Lodge, the cultural area is as important as any other area, and we aim to follow Montessori's principles to allow children to develop and grow into confident, motivated, independent young people who can deal with a variety of situations, be aware of their world, and are kind, nurturing and responsible in their surroundings.