[Montessori 101] An Introduction to Sensorial Theory

New to Montessori? This article includes information on the sensorial area of the classroom. I go over sensorial materials, sensorial philosophy, and sensorial lesson sequence.

Montessori emphasized the child’s ability to develop in his own time. In other words, to reach potential on his own when given freedom and a prepared environment. This respect Montessori bestowed on a child is what drew me to the philosophy. She placed first priority on the child and his natural development.

By believing in the child, she encouraged and motivated children. Furthermore, she opened the eyes of teachers and parents. As Montessori saw it, the number one goal of a child’s development is to cater to the child’s whole self. Moreover, she viewed a child’s development far greater than academic achievement. In other words, Dr. Montessori focused on a child’s emotional and social well-being, including the development of self-esteem and confidence.

What is Montessori Sensorial Theory?

Montessori’s philosophy centers on whole child development. It also depends a great deal on the role of the teacher and a Prepared Environment. Within a prepared environment, the teacher’s main job is to observe the child as he moves about with independence and liberty within the classroom. She must also know when to intervene to guide the child.

Role of Teachers and Parents

Parents and teachers aid children but should only as guides, observers, and careful preparers of the environment. By giving the child liberty to move about the classroom with his natural desire to learn, the child learns at his own pace of development and maintains intrigued with the variety of materials available to him across subject areas and level of difficulty.

Too often adults interfere to solve a problem. Yet, the child needs guidance to help him stay within the parameters of his development. When given the opportunity, a child will focus and concentrate when working with the materials.

How to Teach Montessori Sensorial

Montessori wrote extensively about the spiritual journey and self-awareness that a teacher must follow and must experience in order to be effective. My jaw dropped when I read that she views teachers as scientists needing to understand the psychology of children in order to truly understand the development of a child.

That observation makes so much sense to me yet I had never seen it written down. This fact alone drives the way an adult should teach and parent children.

“Our sensorial material provides a kind of guide to observation, for it classifies the impressions that each sense can receive: the colours, notes, noises, forms and sizes, touch-sensations, odors and tastes. This undoubtedly is also a form of culture, for it leads us to pay attention both to ourselves and to our surroundings.” ~ The Absorbent Mind

Once the teacher trains on the method and prepares spiritually to direct a class, she focuses on giving lessons introducing the child to the materials. From there the child leads his learning to experience with his own “hands” with “control of error” built into the works to enable auto-education.

The Guide & Sensorial Education

The teacher observes the child and knows when to intervene to direct the child back to an activity that suits his development. If the child is not treating material properly, then the teacher will redirect the child either to end that work (perhaps he was not ready to complete that work) or to give another lesson on that work. The child learns respect through these experiences. The role of a Montessori teacher is a careful orchestration of observation, spirituality, and preparation.

Montessori’s Prepared Environment

As I mention above, in addition to the training she put forth with Montessori teachers, Maria implemented the Montessori method through a carefully prepared environment. The environment should be a place that “nourishes the child” by not only meeting the needs for auto-education, required for a child to be able to develop at his own pace, but by also allowing the child’s unique personality and developmental path to reveal itself naturally.

It is important to note that Montessori did not view the classroom as a replacement for life but as a means to reach “the potential life within him visible.” {Montessori: A Modern Approach}

The teacher and the assistant carefully prepare the classroom environment for children ages 2.5-6 years old. The mixed age classroom is a critical aspect of the Montessori method. Children develop at different paces. Mixed age classrooms also provide built-in peer-to-peer teaching and role models for younger children. Older children take on the responsibility of demonstrating to younger children his knowledge.

Montessori Sensorial Materials

All Montessori materials are high quality and ascetically pleasing to the eye. They are simple and neat. There is a great sense of order to the presentation of the materials on the shelf and to the layout of the classroom in designated areas for Practical Life, Sensorial, Culture, Geography, Math and so on.

Furthermore, every piece of material in the Montessori classroom contains a “control of error”, the ability for the child to self-correct and for the teacher to stand back to observe and then to guide when necessary. “This self correction leads the child to concentrate his attention upon the differences of dimension, and to compare the various pieces.”

{Montessori: A Modern Approach}

Sensorial: Education of the Senses

“It is necessary to begin the education of the senses in the formative period, if we wish to perfect this sense development with the education which is to follow. The education of the senses should be begun methodically in infancy, and should continue during the entire period of instruction which is to prepare the individual for life in society.”

Dr. Montessori believed that educating the senses preceded intellectual development. A child’s education of the senses begins at birth. He takes impressions of his world through his senses. Around 2.5 years old he enters a sensitive period for organizing these impressions. Much like the alphabet organizes language, the sensorial work organizes these impressions.

“…the function of the sensorial materials is not to present the child with new impressions (of size, shape, colour and so forth) but to bring order and system into the myriad impressions that he has already received and is still receiving.”

Montessori created materials based on empirical observations of children. She carefully took each of the senses and thought how best she could help the children to clarify and expand their existing experiences. Montessori focused on “systems of objects that share a definite quality, such as color, shape, dimension”. She set forth with preparing the environment that provided the opportunity for a child to interact very specifically with a material or a “quality”.

Isolation of Quality

Each group of objects represents the same quality but in different degrees. Each material emphasizes one particular quality by eliminating or minimizing other differences. So there is consequently a regular but gradual distinction between the various objects and, when this is possible, one that is mathematically fixed like the Pink Tower and the decimal system.

Aims include developing concentration, attention, or visual discrimination. Indirect aims include math and reading & writing. Works are completed left to right and top to bottom in preparation for these later skills to develop. Furthermore new language such as “largest, smallest, heavier, rough, smooth….” is introduced throughout the presentations of work.

Within these materials, Montessori introduced Isolation of Difficulty and Control of Error, two concepts paramount with Sensorial. Each of these concepts gives the child control over the pace of his development and the opportunity to self-correct. Control of Error is automatic feedback that tells the child he needs to make an adjustment in order to complete the work successfully.

No Intervention Necessary

No teacher needs to intervene in the learning process: “The goal is that the child will develop a sense of satisfaction from the work itself, not be dependent on the approval of a teacher.” (The Montessori Controversy, pg. 90) A child learns to make his own decisions and therefore to know and comprehend his instincts effectively.

He develops confidence and the ability to problem solve. Montessori called children who reach this point “Normalized”, a term defined by qualities such as self-control, concentration, independence, empathy, and discipline. Normalization is the main goal of Montessori education.

Every series of objects… is graded so that there is a maximum and a minimum, which determines its limits, or which, more properly, are fixed by the use which a child makes of them.” ~ The Discovery of Childhood

Role of the Parents

Similar to the teacher’s role within the classroom, the parent’s role within the home should seek to guide, not to interfere with, the child. The child’s “spontaneous interest in learning” should be respected and permitted within the home just as it is within the classroom. That means like the classroom parents may want to consider the environment and how it is prepared to allow for liberty and self-education of the child.