A teaching based on sensorial materials was suggested by Montessori and focuses on the development and improvement of sensorial processes including sensation, perception, and views. As sensorial processes are the first stage of knowledge that forms the area of sensorial perception, sensorial education acts as an initial step of rational training. Therefore, the key goal of the sensorial education is to create a basis for the intellectual development. Among other important goals sensorial teaching strives for, there is the formation of sensorial foundations of musical activity, graphic activity, and visual activity. In this connection, sensorial education also serves as an integral part of aesthetic education.
Considering the specifics of the topic, it is essential to focus on sensorial materials. The Montessori environment creates a safe place for children to learn the world in a free manner. According to Montessori, “the sense exercises constitute a species of auto-education, which, if these exercises be many times repeated, leads to a perfecting of the child’s psycho-sensory processes” (224). Developing their senses throughout the day, children learn to distinguish any changes in the world around them by using sensorial indicators. This is called an auto-education. At that, the basic principle of the sensorial teaching is to encourage the child to self-learning and self-development. The motto of teachers following Montessori’s approach sounds like “help me to do it myself” (72). This means that a set of objectives put at the child’s upbringing include independence, self-confidence, respect for others, and diligence resulting in freedom. However, freedom here is not what the child wants but it is a naturally developing capacity of the children to choose the best for themselves and others. In other words, Montessori’s teaching leads to the development of the child’s absorbent mind (Schmidt and Schmidt 221). It is a normal capacity of the child from birth to six years to spontaneously perceive, capture, and remember impressions including signals and data from the outside world. After that, children transform acquired knowledge into their personal experience of adapting to the environment and the formation of their personality.
The sensitive periods for movement, language, and order is those of special susceptibility to various kinds of sensorial activities and methods of emotional response. During these periods, the child develops certain qualities and psychological features. Sensitive periods are inherent in all children and are irrevocable. On the basis of long-term studies, Montessori has realized that certain physical needs of the child coincide with their intellectual development (Schmidt and Schmidt 110). For example, at the end of the second or third month of life, children tend to grasp the objects due to purely muscular sensations, and in two or three years, they are committed to grasping things because of the deep need for the intellectual research. These impulses, appearing externally, need to find the right setting.
The normal state of the child is continuous yet adequate movement the limitation of which can lead to mental retardation. The peak of the movement period is accounted for three years, and the child is to be able to master almost all kinds of movements available to adults to the fourth year of life. However, the flow of this sensitive period (1-4.5 years) is non-uniform: at the early stage, the child’s interest is the movement itself as they have a need to feel the possibility of their bodies trying to open the door or push the legs to move heavy things, for example. Then, they begin to express their interest in the result and wonder more complex actions that require a certain level of coordination (Wentworth 74). The sensitive period of the language development lasts from birth to six years. In the first year of life, a child learns the articulation and intonation patterns of the native language. Since the second year, the child increases vocabulary using it as a means of communication and behavior management tool. The sensitive period of developing a sense of the order focuses on 1.5-4 years. At this age, it is easy to teach the child to maintain external order and to put things into place after the use.
In the context of sensorial materials, repetition is the key element of success. Each of the sensorial materials is to be clearly understandable, built step by step, accurate, and meaningful (Schmidt and Schmidt 72). They should contain the algorithm of re-action so that children can easily repeat the action with the material on their own. This statement is based on the fact that children love repetitions. At that, they equally train both motor and sensorial skills. The teaching is considered as an experiment that is performed by using the corresponding sensorial material and subsequent expectation of immediate and spontaneous reaction of the child. Montessori points out that “our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence” (105). It is the same thing as a psychologist provides, giving the subject a variety of stimuli and observing the reaction of the subject to them.
Sensorial materials impact the child in becoming normalized. The process of normalization refers to the maximum optimization of the child’s development during which any deviations in their character are to be eliminated (Wentworth 66). It takes place through the free work in a specially prepared environment. Normalization of the individual child can be identified by the absence of deviations in behavior and the acquisition of a number of qualities. Sensorial materials are to help the child in preparing for the environment by growing their social and emotional awareness. The level of concentration is also to increase leading to the normalization.
The strong connection between the child and development of their will, self-discipline, and the ground rules can be ensured by the use of sensorial materials. According to Montessori, the teacher should “respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them” (112). As a result, both environment and method encourage the development of the child’s self-discipline and basic rules. For example, the child pushes the chair every time he or she arises. This action occurs not because it is supposed to, but because it can bother others in case it is not performed. To make all these activities, the child needs to make an effort training their will through a set of voluntary actions.
Speaking of the teacher, it is essential to note that they act teacher in the role of the observer and the preparer of the environment. At that, sensorial materials support their performance by adding supplementary value. In particular, the latter helps teachers to understand children, their peculiarities, and needs better. Montessori believes that “it is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She (teacher) must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it” (121). Each material has a well-defined didactic task, and before the teacher lets the child work with it, they are to explain the notion and meaning of the object. Montessori comes from the fact that only these objects can be used properly bringing benefits (Povell 28). The teacher, seeing the child’s awakened interest in the different materials, should show how to interact with them. In the process of sensorial learning, there is the transition from sensory to rational knowledge and from perception to the thought that forms a certain basis, required for the subsequent intellectual activity (Isaacs 58). Therefore, the development of sensorial processes plays a significant role in improving the child’s practical activity. In this connection, Montessori’s method can be applied in the classroom environment. The child can choose the partner, the activity, and its duration. Children are also encouraged to teach, collaborate, and help each other.
The core principle in designing sensorial materials is to consider that every child develops in their individual way in a specially prepared environment. At the same time, the child should be regarded as unique and inimitable personality with their own plan, methods, and timing of the world cognition (Isaacs 72). The educators are to organize sensorial materials so that creativity of the child would be developed maximally. Also, materials and tasks should be based on the principle of self-correction: the child himself should see mistakes without a negative evaluation from the teacher (Isaacs 73). The main place in the Montessori system is to be given to the child, and the teacher should act as the assistant whose task is to teach how to work with materials as well as to observe children’s achievements, gently encouraging them to explore the world.
It is essential to emphasize the fact that sensorial materials relate to the other curriculum areas such as practical life skills, mathematics, language, sensorial activities, and cultural studies (Lillard 215). The child acts with certain subjects in a certain way developing specific curriculum areas. For example, building the pink tower or brown ladder, they put a pair of colored plates or collect pieces of the design of triangles but indirectly, without knowing it, they learn to compare, differentiate or integrate, and analyze. The above example shows the development of mathematical skills.
As for parents’ perception of sensorial materials, their role is similar to those of the educators. Acting as guides, they are to organize the environment to continue the teaching realized at school in the context of Montessori’s method (Isaacs 89). Parents can encourage spontaneous interest in learning by using several sensorial materials (Lillard 73). For example, fabric swatches and sandpaper tablets can help them to develop tactile senses in their child. Another example is associated with gustatory senses and food preparation and tasting. Through offering the child to take part in cooking voluntarily, parents can stimulate their interest in tastes as well as develop the clear distinction of the latter.
Among sensorial materials of Montessori, there are those that require matching and those that need grading. The first group involves fabric, sound, food, color tablets, and baric tablets. They can be matched to similar things. The second group includes red rods, broad stair, pink tower, geometric shapes, and knobbed and knobless cylinders. Montessori distinguishes the nine qualities of an object. Let us consider each of them along with materials they address.
- Visual Sense. Children learn to differentiate size, color, and form. Montessori materials: the pink tower, red rods, knobbed and knobless cylinders, brown prisms, and others.
- Chromatic Sense. Children learn to recognize differences between a variety of gradations of the object. Montessori materials: color tablets.
- Stereognostic Sense. Children learn to distinguish size and shape of objects. Montessori materials: the teaching is provided with the eyes closed by use of a set of geometric objects.
- Tactile Sense. Children learn to perceive the world by touch. Montessori materials: fabric swatches and sandpaper tablets.
- Thermic Sense. Children learn to distinguish temperature by touching objects. Montessori materials: thermic tablets.
- Baric Sense. Children learn to perceive the weight of objects. Montessori materials and activities: baric tablets and moving child-sized furniture.
- Auditory Sense. Children learn to differentiate the sounds. Montessori activities: silence game.
- Olfactory Sense. Children learn to perceive the smells. Montessori materials: scent bottles.
- Gustatory Sense. Children learn to distinguish the tastes. Montessori activities: food tasting and preparation.
In conclusion, it should be stressed that everything in the Montessori system encourages the child to self-learning and self-development based on potential inherent in them. The task of the teacher is the development of children, namely, assistance in organizing their activities to explore the world. The key principle of sensorial materials is to make the child interested in knowledge of the world and independent in activities.
Works Cited
Isaacs, Barbara. Understanding the Montessori Approach: Early Years Education in Practice. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. Print.
Lillard, Paula Polk. Montessori in the Classroom: A Teacher’s Account of How Children Really Learn. New York: Schocken, 2013. Print.
Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method. Mineola: Dover, 2012. Print.
Povell, Phyllis. Montessori Comes to America: The Leadership of Maria Montessori and Nancy McCormick Rambusch. Lanham: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Schmidt, Maren, and Dana Schmidt. Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents. Indianapolis: Random House, 2009. Print.
Wentworth, Roland A. Lubienski. Montessori for the New Millennium: Practical Guidance on the Teaching and Education of Children of All Ages, Based on a Rediscovery of the True Principles and Vision of Maria Montessori. Mahwah: Erlbaum Associates, 2013. Print.