Sensitive Periods for Learning

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Sensitive periods in child development mark the different stages in that children can most rapidly acquire a particular skill or characteristic. Teachers resort to sensitive periods for obtaining specific skills and knowledge, such as language. They do it within concrete time frames when a child has powerful mental abilities. Montessori provides a universal framework that identifies four main sensitive periods occurring between birth and six years. Children have consistent, sensitive periods during which they can build up a specific knowledge area or skill.¹ Montessori sensitive time frames impact numerous child’s qualities and abilities, sensory activity, oral and writing skills, speech development, spatial orientation, perception of music, and others, involving the improvement of psychological processes.

Children have an absorbent mind that develops from unconscious to conscious stages of learning. On the one hand, the unconscious absorbent mind describes babies’ brains from birth until around three years old.² The children are engaged by the environment and use all five senses to absorb and understand information. On the other hand, the conscious absorbent mind describes development between the ages of three and six, when children process information by contemplating objects and studying the environment.

The orderly period begins at birth and peaks during the second year of development. The period enables children to organize information, understand their environment, and enhance their reasoning skills.³ The order essentially supports the children’s mental organization in preparation for the other learning periods. Between one and a half years to three years cater to language development and explosion. Children begin by mimicking movements of the mouth and gradually progress to uttering words and phrases. The period is ideal for quickly mastering children’s vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Besides communication skills, toddlers play and interact with small objects between one and a half and four years critical for muscle building and crafts. Interest in touching and handling small items naturally fosters children’s fine motor development and hand and optical coordination.

Toddlers become more mobile with greater coordination between ages two and four years. Movement and brain coordination are refined to create a sequence and order of activities. Children start by using both hands to hold objects and organize thinking to improve communication. For instance, children can coordinate thoughts to narrate a story. Between ages two and a half and four years, children are drawn to more advanced activities in a flow-through grace and courtesy.⁴ Toddlers can take instructions and enroll in education programs with minimal disagreements through grace and courtesy. The child’s senses are developed to observe and judge sensorial discriminations. Sensorial refinement triggers inner compulsion and curiosity in children.

Due to innate inquisitiveness, children consciously seek certain experiences from three to six years. Between ages three and six, children become preoccupied with numbers and letters which is crucial for enhancing their newly developed faculties and abilities. They attempt to reproduce the numbers they see by writing them. Writing precedes reading and the symbolic representation of the sounds of alphabets used to form words are aroused by reading.⁵ There is increased interest and adoration, which causes children to imitate and mimic adults.

At four years old, the child has developed physical and psychological abilities. Children are willing to form spatial relationships with the adults they interact with. The child can easily recognize familiar people, locations, and different phenomena to form impressions. Montessori identified that young ones experience a sensitive period for music development and activities similar to any other form of learning. Children spontaneously learn rhythm, pitch, and melody to be able to express themselves musically. When toddlers acquire four and a half years, they can handle mathematical concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. ⁶ Each Montessori sensitive period identifies a field where the child’s psychological and physical well-being is prepared to perfection.

The predictable pattern of sensitive periods is essential to ease children’ assimilation of specific concepts. Sensitive periods do not cause fatigue among children but rather build more capacities intrinsic to life. The Montessori theory nurtured order, concentration, and independence beginning at an early age and applied in classroom design, curriculum, materials, and daily routines. The five principles of the Montessori education model are respect for the child, sensitive periods, an absorbent mind, an enhanced environment, and auto education for it to be successful.⁷ Therefore, Montessori teachers and the education system thrive on the principles of the Montessori theory when implementing the various periods.

In conclusion, the Montessori curriculum is a learning method based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning, and collaborative play by leveraging age-appropriate activities. The periods for Montessori learning include order, grace, courtesy, learning to read and write, and other cognitive skills. At various ages, children can absorb the various activities better and learn the objectives of the periods. The Montessori approach is holistic to unleash children’s full potential in all spheres of life.