S

SENSITIVE PERIODS

Young children go through various sensitive periods in which they are stimulated to engage in learning activities and are naturally motivated. It has been shown that during a sensitive period, a child shows spontaneous concentration when pursuing a certain activity. He or she repeats this constantly, without external reward or encouragement. In Montessori education, there are sensitive periods or learning windows for movement, language, order, but also for sensory experiences and music.

SENSORY MATERIALS

The sensory materials are designed to help young children develop and organise their intelligence. Each scientifically designed material isolates a quality such as colour, size, shape, weight, etc. This isolation focuses attention on one aspect only. The child can derive generalisations about these objects through repeated practice. What cannot yet be explained in words at a young age, the child learns through experience in dealing with the sensory materials, the so-called ‘materialised abstractions’. With the help of sensory materials, children open up new intellectual dimensions of their world when they are encouraged to transfer their findings into reality.

SOUND GAMES

Many children know the alphabet but are unable to identify the sounds in words and do not realise that words are made up of individual sounds (phonemic awareness). From the age of about two years, as soon as the child speaks fluently, they can be made aware of the letters in words through sound games.