Montessori Schools of Scribbles & Centerville

What are sensitive periods?

This is Montessori's name for age periods when the child shows unusual capabilities in acquiring particular skills. A modern name for this phenomenon might be "formative periods" or 'periods of special maturational aptness" -- a period in which the child is psychologically attuned to learn or acquire given ideas or skills more easily than at any other period. Modern psychologists refer to critical learning periods and stress developmental needs to be capitalized upon with developmental tasks. For example: the sensitive period for writing is between three and half and four to five, for precise movement and coordination two and a half to four, and for acquiring a sense of order two and a half to three and a half years. The Montessori takes advantage of this fact by allowing the child freedom to select individual activities that correspond to his/her own periods of interest.