The Montessori method emphasizes the education of the five senses: through the manipulation of the appropriate pedagogical material, the child will progressively learn to recognize colours, volumes, shapes, weights, smells, sounds and so on.
The child discovers the environment that surrounds it thanks to the senses: the more refined they are, the better their perception of the world in which they live is. In the adult sensory education is difficult, which is why it is essential to start it during the period of training, so that it can be further refined later.
Maria Montessori has developed sensory material to allow the child to sharpen the senses according to different aspects:
– Distinguishing perceptions (by comparison)
– Specifying the classifications and ordering
– Generalizing, conceptualizing.
Through manipulation, the vision of reality becomes more exact. The child manages to orient himself with greater precision: Montessori claimed that in this way he becomes a more aware observer and comes to perceive details better.
The child can also be helped to develop the senses by graduating and adapting the stimuli through the installation of specific material in his environment.
Moreover, the development of the senses can highlight any defects, often discovered too late and therefore more difficult to correct, on an auditory, visual, and so on.
Here’s what Maria Montessori said:
“Multiplying sensations and developing the ability to appreciate even the slightest differences, the sensitivity is refined”. Beauty dwells in harmony, and we need a certain sensorial finesse and perceive it. The aesthetic harmonies of nature and art escape those with gross senses.
His world is smaller and greener. In our environment, there is an infinite number of sources of authentic joy, in front of which men pass unaware, like animals, looking for pleasure in strong sensations, because they are accessible to them.
The attitude to vices often arises from gross pleasures: in reality the strongest stimulants do not sharpen the sensibility, but attenuate the senses that therefore need ever more violent stimuli.”
The sensory material also makes it possible to respond to the sensitive period of the order, since the child will often find himself ordering things and this will develop his capacity for concentration.
This material also allows to improve the vocabulary, more specifically the comparatives and the superlatives. For example, the child will find himself saying: smoother, rougher, lighter, darker.
Finally, the development of the senses contributes greatly to the learning of reading: in fact, to read, the child must know how to listen and a child with the well-refined ear will more easily perceive sounds that may seem similar, like that of “m” and that of the “n”. Furthermore, if the child has developed the auditory memory, the child will remember all the sounds of the language. If his sight is sharpened, the letters that might resemble it will appear to him very different, and will keep it in mind more easily.
