Sensorial education begins the mionte a baby is born. He receives impressions through his senses. Mria Montessori believed that there was nothing in the intellect that did not first exist in the senses and the first of the childs organs that begin to function are the senses. During the forst thress years of a child life all the impressions received from the childs environment are stored in the unconscious memeory, The “mneme” A young child receives and perceives everything, both positive and negative and these impressions are stored.
A child between two and six years passes through the ‘ sensitive period for the refinement of the senses’. From the ages of Three to six the sensorial impressions tha child received are educated thorugh the Montessori sensorial materials in the prepared environment. Should the impressions remain as is and not be educated, they will remain a scramble in the childs brain. The child is driven to gains all the sensorial impressions by his inner teacher. This drive and the sensitive periods enable the child to absorb all the impressions around him.
The sensitive periods are an internal aid that help the child catagorise, utelise and inetrnalise the sensorial impressions. A child learns with an unconscious effort between the ages of borth to three,. The mneme is driven by the ‘horme. The child receives all the impressions of his expierences, they enter his mind and become part of him. Fomr the age of birth to six, is the main period of sensory exploration for a child. The sensorial impressions a child receives are not the same as sensorial education.
Sensorial education takes place when the child receives the knowledge to catagorise and use his impressions. Intelligence is built upon by exierences and though process and the development of the intellect is dependent on interaction and contact with environment though his sense. The aim of sensorial education is to allow the child to use his enses to understyand what heor she sees or expierences. It is a refinement fo the sense moving from simple to complex building displin and concentration and the child becomes an active participant in his own education.
The sensorial equipment becomes a starting block to the other areas of the curriculum in the prepared environment. They lay a groundwork and help classify impressions that have up until now just been stored in the mneme. The materials are concrete, graded and sequenced. The materials help develop intellect and order the mind needed for learning. The child trains ans refines his senses when working with the materials. He is ordering his mins and all the impressions he has reccibed are being educated. This education does not shrpen the sense but allows the child to use his senses to understand what he sees.
The child gets to name his senses. Through sensorial education, we isolate each snese he has received through impressions. As a child works further, he learns about the concepts of size, colour, weight, quality etc. When the differences are clear, names are introduced. There si an order and sequence to the materials presented. The senosrila materials are to enlarge a child field of preceotion. The excersizes were designmed to cover every quality that can be peecieved by the senses. The prepared a solid foundation for the child to develop his intellect.
The mterials stimulate the childsnatural inquisitive nature and educate at the same time by refining his senses. They aim to establish order in the mind of the child, developing intelligence, confidence and independence. A foundation for future education and learning is provided. In working with the materials the child is able to prepare himself to function in the neviroment and appreciate it. The breians operception is improved and movement refined. Refining the senses aids concept development “the senses are the windows of the world” The child takes the expiernece beyond the materials an applies them to daily life.
Everything is related back to the childs environment. A child of two and a half has receive many sensoril impressions but has not yet educated them. Form two and a half, the child works to obtain conscious knowledge of all that he has perceived which comes about when the childs intelligenmce is clarifying and applying and discriminating betweena l the impressions he has received. The mathematical part of a child mind does the ordering abnd classifying of all impressions and though the sensorial materials thay build an understanding.
From three to six years the child forms order from the impressions he has received and his knowledge and progress msut come from accuarate observation through exploration and expierence of the environment. Children go through a sensitive period in their lives where they are acutely sensitive to the impressions recievd through the senses. The impressions recievd through the expierence of taste, touch, sight, smell and sound constructs and guides the childs understanding of the physical, social, material and natural worlds. The senses, being expolers of the world, open a way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his exploratations of the worls, they cast a light upon it which makes visable to him more things in greater detail than he could see in the dark uneducated state” The sensorial materials isolate qualities of the impressions that the child has recioeved and perceived and isolatesit to provide a sensory impression. After the first presentation, the child makes his own connection as he works with the materials and develops his own understanding.
It is through this refionement of his senses that he is able to understand the world around him and be more confident in it. An child whos is uneducated goes about not noticing and learning from his world about him. A child can gain more knowelge from his world if he has benifed form sensorial education. All sensorial materials provides a kind of guide to observation, for it classifies the impressions that each sense cab receive: the colours, noises forms and sizes. This undoubtedly is alos a form of culture for itleads us to pay attemtion both to ourselves and our surroundings.
The child becomes aware of his ennviroment and what it is composed of. He becomes familure with the sights, smlees ans souds of his own culture. Refining his senses through the materials makes him become more aware of this. The materials allow him to make sense of and understand all that he has observed in his home environment. By having impressions educated, you increase the childs language development. Each feeling, sound, smell, taste is given a name. Highlighting of the snese caomes through the frequency of the act, the more they use them, the better they become.
All the materials help education as the go form concrete to abstract. The sensorial materil help the powers of observation, attention and concentration. The child is drawn in by th activity and focuseed and ginging concentration. The materials promote auto-eduation and are didactic and all have a definite conrol of error, They promote both fine motor and gross mtote coordination, both vital is the outside world. Sensorial education helps establish order and clarity withina childs mind, it sets a framework for life. If there is no sensoral education, they remain just impressions for life
