Maria Montessori believed in a necessary relationship between children and their environment. Children must find a
properly prepared environment if they are to fully develop their unique human potentials.
In addition to determining children's eventual height, hair colour and other physical characteristics, there is another cognitive
plan which determines the unique emotional and intellectual qualities of each child. These qualities develop through what
Maria Montessori referred to as "the Sensitive Periods."
Each Sensitive Period is a specific kind of compulsion, motivating young children to seek objects and relationships in their
environment with which to fulfill their special and unique inner potentials.
Dr. Montessori believed that children will develop to their full human potential when everything in the environment is "just
right". Like Goldilocks; food, furniture, learning activities, social relations, clothing, routines and rituals must all be "just right"
in order for them to develop their fullest potential as human beings. Young children are neither consciously aware of nor
capable of directly communicating their interests and developmental needs. In Montessori's Early Childhood programs,
teachers are charged with providing learning environments in which everything is "just right". For almost one hundred years,
Montessori educators have observed a set of motivations shared by young children around the world. What Dr. Maria
Montessori discovered in the St. Lorenz Quarter in 1907 was that children are self-motivated to learn from their environment.
Borrowing a term from biology, she called these stages the Sensitive Periods, after similar developmental stages in animals.
The idea seemed revolutionary at the time and took many years, following Piaget's extensions of Montessori's initial
explanation, to become generally accepted in child psychology. Today, whether we use Montessori's terminology or not, the
description of child development she first presented at the turn of the century rings true.
Each Sensitive Period is:
- A period of special sensibility and psychological attitudes.
- An overpowering force, interest or impetus directing children to particular qualities and elements in the environment.
- A period of time during which children center their attention on specific aspects of the environment, to the exclusion of all
else.
- A passion and a commitment.
- Derived from the unconscious and leads children to conscious and creative activities.
- Intense and prolonged activity which does not lead to fatigue or boredom, but instead leads to persistent energy and
interest.
- A transitory state, once realized, the sensitive period disappears. Sensitive periods are NEVER regained, once they have
passed.
Dr. Montessori identified eleven different Sensitive Periods occurring from birth through age six. Each refers to a
predisposition compelling children to acquire specific characteristics as described below. When Montessori teachers speak
about children being "inner directed," they are referring to an inner compulsion or Sensitive Period. A Montessori teacher
would say, for example, "This child is in her Sensitive Period for order". These phrases point to each child's predisposition
to follow her own daily classroom routine in which she chooses the same materials and in the same sequence. Ages of the
onset and conclusion of each Sensitive Period are approximate and are indicated after the general description.
0 – 1yr
0 – 6yrs
1 – 4yrs
2 – 4yrs
2 – 6yrs
2 – 6yrs
2 – 6yrs
3 – 4yrs
3 – 5yrs
4 – 6yrs
4 – 6yrs
Movement: Random movements become coordinated and controlled: grasping, touching, turning,
balancing, crawling, walking.
Language: Use of words to communicate: a progression from babble to words to phrases to sentences,
with a continuously expanding vocabulary and comprehension.
Small Objects: A fixation on small objects and tiny details.
Order: Characterized by a desire for consistency and repetition and a passionate love for established
routines. Children can become deeply disturbed by disorder. The environment must be carefully ordered
with a place for everything and with carefully established ground rules.
Music: Spontaneous interest in and the development of pitch, rhythm, and melody.
Grace & Courtesy: Imitation of polite and considerate behavior leading to an internalization of these
qualities into the personality
Refinement of the Senses: Fascination with sensorial experiences (taste, sound, touch, weight, smell)
resulting with children learning to observe and with making increasingly refined sensorial discriminations.
Writing: Fascination with the attempt to reproduce letters and numbers with pencil or pen and paper.
Montessori discovered that writing precedes reading.
Reading: Spontaneous interest in the symbolic representations of the sounds of each letter and in the
formation of words.
Spatial Relationships: Forming cognitive impressions about relationships in space, including the layout of
familiar places. Children become more able to find their way around their neighbourhoods and they are
increasingly able to work complex puzzles.
Mathematics: Formation of the concepts of quantity and operations from the uses of concrete material
aids.
Note: This list does not include the sensitive periods found in the development of older children and adolescents. However,
it does suggest to the early childhood educator or Parent some of the things that young children absorb, or will if they are
given exposure and opportunity.
Keep in mind that the child's learning during these early stages is not complete, nor has it reached the internalized
abstraction stage that will develop as she grows older. It is, however, the foundation upon which much that follows will be
built. Wherever this solid foundation is lacking, children will experience difficulty in learning and operating later on!