sensorial

1. Sensorial Education
A child is an active learner who is attracted by the things in this world. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so, he passes little by little from the unconscious to the conscious. Maria Montessori mentioned that the first of the child’s organs to begin functioning are his senses. The period of life between the ages of three and six years covers a period of rapid physical development. It is the time for the formation of the sense activities as related to the intellect. The child in this age develops his senses. His attention is further attracted to the environment under the form of passive curiosity. The development of the senses indeed preceded that of superior intellectual activity. The child between the three and six years is in the period of formation.

Dr. Montessori set out to produce abstract ideas in a concrete form. She took each main abstract idea necessary for the understanding of the curriculum and made a piece of sensorial material to help children understand.

Nature has given us five senses:- sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. By using the five senses, the child makes a mental order of his environment.

What are the 5 basic senses?
• Visual: Most adults are primarily visual learners. They need to see things demonstrated. Montessori categorised even further. She broke the visual sense down into separate sections. They are:
 dimensions (size of the object)
 colour/chromatic (awareness of colour)
 and form(awareness of shapes).
• Auditory: As adults, we are bombarded by sound. We tune out many sounds to function. Therefore, there are some sounds that we do not even hear. The young child has a set of gigantic ears. He hears everything. Children in the early age are very sensitive to tones: therefore, it is a good time for them to learn music.

• Tactile: Children learn from touching. According to Dr. Montessori, tactile senses can be divided into four areas:
 surface