Sensitive periods

``Maria Montessori believed that every human being went through a quantum leap in learning
during the preschool years. She felt this was especially true from birth to the first few years of life.
The years when a child learns language is surely a profound and mysterious process of learning.
The urges that a baby has to sit up, crawl and walk are also stages of development that are innate.
Montessori called this process of learning and behavior norms as the sensitive periods. During a
sensitive period it is very easy to teach children certain concepts that later on will be somewhat
more difficult for an older child to learn. Dr. Montessori believed that a child was the teacher in
that we should observe our children to know what stage of learning or sensitive period they are
in.``
http://www.montessorimom.com/?Approach_and_Philosophy:Sensitive_Periods_for_Learning

``Dr. Montessori saw in her observations of children that certain sensitive periods occur; these
sensitive periods are related to certain elements in the environment to which children are
irresistibly drawn. Children are attracted only to certain elements in the environment for a short
time, as one sensitivity recedes sensitivity arises to take its place.

The purpose of each sensitive period, which is actually an inner sensibility possessed by children,
is to help them acquire a certain skill or characteristic necessary for their growth. As they acquire
the skill or characteristic, their sensitivity for it decreases and another sensitivity increases.

All sensitive periods are related in that each provides a foundation for the next. Together, the
sensitive periods help children to make sense out of what they and the work around them are all
about.`` http://www.montessorisv.com/html/maria.html

A sensitive period refers to a special sensibility, which a creature acquires in its infantile state…it
is a transient disposition limited to the acquisition of a particular trait. Once this treat has been
acquired, the special sensibility disappears. It is this sensibility, which enables a child to come
into contact with the external world in a particular intense manner. When one of these passions is
exhausted, another is enkindled. It is necessary that adults offer appropriate activities to
correspond to the need of development, but if the child’s age had past this special sensitivity, it is
never possible to obtain in its fullness; the development of a trait has missed its proper moment.

It is as if the “Sensitive periods” were there waiting secretly and silently to arise inside the child
getting ready to be used as soon as the child needs them. They help him like a guardian angel, an
inner guide to fully develop his inner growth, giving him the special tool at exact time when it is
needed, one after the other, until he is satisfied, then he will pass through another one. When he
has conquered each of his “needs”, his happiness will be total and real. The only thing he needs
from us adults, is the knowledge and the recognition for
what he is passing through; our discrete and almost
invisible guidance if needed and freedom to develop
itself.

It is interesting to note that whenever a particular

sensitiveness is aroused in a child, he is consumed with
an intense passion for that singular sensitivity, making
him oblivious of everything else. In Montessori’s own
words, it is like a beam light that shines on some objects
but not on others. Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood , page 51.

Surprisingly, any activity a child performs which is aroused by a sensitive period does not cause
him any fatigue. On the contrary, after each activity the child feels better, calmer and much re-
freshed. Montessori believed this was because, by means of this ‘work’ … children were actually
‘creating themselves’ Paula Polk Lillard, Montessori Today, page 26 .

Montessori brought into being her idea of Sensitive Periods from the realm of Nature..
``Descriptively, sensitive periods could be conceived of as a brief opening of a window (Bateson,
1979) of vulnerability, of need, and also of opportunity. Sensitive periods have been observed to
exist in the development of many different animals as well as in humans.``
http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/glaser/glaser_2.htm#Sensitive

The biologist Fabre has shown how species preserve themselves through impulses that act as inner
guides these may be called guiding instincts. Here the guiding instincts act like a mother or
pedagogue hidden within the secret of creation, a kind of key to the survival of species. Later
biologist Hugo De Vries gives the name of “sensitive periods” in connection with his research
with caterpillars. From De Vries, Montessori coined the expression.

According to Dr Montessori, in this early phase, development is actually reliant on environmental

influences. People form all aspects of their personalities through their own experiences in
interacting with their environment. Throughout life, people possess sensitivity to and an eagerness
for something. The”sensitive periods” Montessori refers to, are most readily apparent in the early
years of childhood and involve the period in which the child is particularly receptive to certain
stimuli. A particular sensitivity toward something lasts only until a necessary need is fulfilled.

Maria Montessori compares a missed sensitive period to a frail old granny knitting a stocking and
dropping a stitch now and then. Even though the stocking is finished, it is not as strong a garment
as it might have been. The missed sensitive periods have a similar effect on a child’s development
to adulthood. For example, the sensitive period of language is so powerful, that during this period
a child can learn two or three languages effortlessly.

Absorbent mind
Birth - 3 years
Sensory experiences

1½ - 3 years Language development

Coordination and muscle development
1½ - 4 years
Interest in small objects
Refinement of movement
Concern with truth and reality
2 - 4 years
Awareness of order sequence in time and space
Sense of order
2½ - 6 years Sensory refinement

3 - 6 years Susceptibility to adult influence

3½ - 4 years Writing
4 – 4½ years Tactile senses
Reading
4½ - 5½ years
Good manners

From Elizabeth G. Hainstock, Essential Montessori, page 69

Zero to 3 years Age of the unconscious absorbent mind Dr Montessori refers to the period of
life between birth and three years old as the time when the intelligence has the ability to
differentiate and to make judgments quickly and in an orderly manner. Human, unlike animals,
is not born with pre-established behavior patterns, only with the ability to form them.
Development and brain maturation are dependent on environmental influences.

Montessori spokes of the child’s mind as the “absorbent mind”, because of his great ability to
learn and assimilate effortlessly and unconsciously from the world around him. While the child
is absorbing from his environment, he is building into himself a part of his mental being.
Through gradual and orderly learning process, behavior patterns are established and the powers
of the adult mind are developed. Dr. Montessori recognized that the young child in his
formative stages absorbs almost all his learning from an environment in which he is placed
formed by attitudes, language, movements, and behavior.

Sensitive period of language: 1 ½ to 3 years

It is one of the earliest and at the same times the most wonderful sensitive period of language.
Without the help of lessons and without conscious effort, the child learns the language he hears
around him with perfection. The sensitive period for language has already began in the child
before he can speak or walk. At four months a baby may be seen intently watching the mouth
of the speaker and making “vague soundless words”. At six months the baby will begin to
make real sounds. From his birth, the child makes order in the multiple sounds coming from his
environment which looks like confusion, chaos. There is a time of preparation. Out of all the
sounds in their environment infants are attracted to human sounds; from these they learn to
speak their native language. A mysterious urge is lit up. The child’s mind now listens
voluntarily to the spoken language. The fibers of the vocal muscles begin to vibrate in harmony
to a new order and a new rhythm. This sensitive period is one that lasts longer than any other.
Later, the child moves to sensitivity to the construction of language. Of course, the child must
be exposed to language during this sensitive period or language experiences or the absence of it
will cause harm to the developing organism.

Interest in small objects and Coordination and muscle development: 1 ½ to 4 years

Children of that age possess sensitivity to movement; they have to

move about in their environment in order to learn. Development
and coordination of fine and large muscle skills, advanced
developing grasp and release skill spawns an interest in any small
object. It is also curious but indubitable fact that children at this
age (around 2 and half to 3) are drawn by a peculiar fascination to
tiny objects in their environment, objects so small that adults often
miss them.

Sensitive period of order: 2 - 4 years Awareness to order + sequence in time and space
This sensitive period for order begins to reveal itself as the child reaches his second year; and
lasts for about two years. ``The sensitivity to order of the child of two to three relates to order
in time and space. Children at this age are very aware of irregularities in their environment;
they notice things that are out of place. They cannot live in disorder because they are
constructing themselves from elements in their environment. Order is the child's foundation for
making sense out of his or her environment.`` http://www.montessorisv.com/html/maria.html

During this period, the child displays an almost passionate interest in the order of things. It
seems to him, and it seems vital, that everything in his environment should be kept in its
original place; and that the actions of the day should be carried out in their accustomed routine.
These tiny children, just because of this sensitive period for order, very quickly get a sort of
mental photographic impression of the position of everything in the classroom; and furthermore
they take an exquisite delight in seeing that everything returns to its proper place. It is
necessary for the child to have this sense of order and this kind of stability in his environment
because he is constructing himself out of the elements of the environment. The principle of
order is there from the start and it is the foundation of the work of collecting further images.
The child starts from nothing and has everything to build. We are rich in experience; he is poor.
The child’s need order for his life as a basis of the construction of his whole.

Sensitive period for refinement of senses: 2/ ½ – 6 years

``The sensitivity to sensory impressions occurs as children spontaneously investigate and reach
out to their world. They see, they touch, they feel, they smell, they taste, they hear. They seek
to find out about their world by using, developing, and refining their powers of sensory
discrimination.`` http://www.montessorisv.com/html/maria.html

It is well known that the child, before the age of reason sets in, has a special interest in
sensorial impressions of all kinds in colour, sound, shape, texture and so forth. This is the
period in which Montessori gives the children the sensorial materials these not only respond to
the child’s natural interest in sensorial impressions, but also by the activity, which they
stimulate, refine the senses, perfecting their functions. This is a period in which children are
interested in learning how to perform precise movements. At this stage they are delighted in
carrying out such actions with an increasing perfection.

Sensitive period in writing and reading: 4 ½ – 5 ½

Writing precedes reading. The child’s explosion into

writing is closely connected with his special sensitivity for
language. By the age of five and a half or six, this
sensitivity has ceased to exist; so it is clear that writing
can be learned with joy an enthusiasm only before that
age. Their tireless activity in in writing was like a torrent,
Montessori said. During childhood, the motor
mechanisms are in their sensitive stage and prompt to
obey the secret orders of nature.

It is necessary to find out at what stage the mechanisms are ready to be fixed, they will be
fixed naturally and without effort giving them the right tools to exercise, for example, metal
insets, outlined figures, sand paper letters etc. When letters are offered to a child, he traces it
and sounds it, he fixes an image of it in his mind with the help of his visual, tactile, auditory
and muscular memory. He associates the sound with the symbol; he becomes acquainted with
graphic language. When he sees and recognizes, he reads; when he touches he writes. In this
sensitive period, the child builds his future foundation for language. Most children are very
open to their parents and other adults, like teachers. They have a real interest and admiration of
the adult world; they want to copy and mimic adults.

These sensitive periods are of utmost importance and, as future Montessori teachers, it is our
duty to assist children in gaining optimal benefit from them.

The ‘essence’ of these sensitive periods is that they are:

- phased - children appear to go through different phases of sensitive periods.

- specific - children are attuned towards developing specific skills in specific time frames.

- intense - when a sensitive period is aroused in a child, he is consumed with an intense

passion for that singular sensitivity, making him oblivious of everything else.

- untiring - any activity a child performs which is aroused by a sensitive period does not cause
him any fatigue; rather after each activity he feels better, calmer and much refreshed. -

- emotional - any disturbance that prevents a child from fully benefiting from the sensitive
period that he is passing through, can cause an emotional upheaval in the child.

- transitory - the sensitive periods do not last forever and it is futile to try and catch a sensitive
period that is missed.

- precious – a child having missed a sensitive period will grow up to be a diminished

individual compared to what he might have been, had he been given the opportunity to benefit
from it.

Bibliography

- E.M. Standing Montessori, Her life and her work, Published in 1998 by Plume Printing, USA,

- Paula Polk Lillard, Montessori Today, Published in 1996 by Schoken Books Inc., New York,
USA

- Elizabeth G. Hainstock, Essential Montessori, Published in 1997 by Plume Printing, USA

- Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the child , Clio Press

- Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, Clio Press

-http://www.montessorimom.com/?Approach_and_Philosophy:Sensitive_Periods_for_Learning

- http://www.montessorisv.com/html/maria.html

- http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/glaser/glaser_2.htm#Sensitive
1) Please describe in your own words what is a “sensitive period”?

2) Have you ever observed a child experiencing a sensitive period at home, in class…?

3) Is it possible for a child to be more intensely involved within a sensitive period while
other sensitive periods are less perceptible?

4) Have you ever missed a “window of opportunity” in your own life? What are the effects
according to you?

5) Why is a sensitive period a synonym of “window of opportunity”?