The Benefits of Sensorial Training An Introduction
“How can any one paint who cannot grade colors? How can any one write poetry who has not learnt to hear and see?”
Montessori, M
Sensorial Training
> Sensorial training is designed to refine the senses: visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, thermic, baric, stereognostic and chromatic
> Refining the senses helps teach one how to observe, discriminate, classify, categorize, and order the world around them in ever more nuanced, interesting, detailed ways
Montessori, M. (1988). The Absorbent Mind. Oxford: Clio Press. p. 167
“The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world…”
The Materials
The role of the teacher is the better direct that exploration through preparing and introducing the right materials, observing the child and going at the right pace, and so on
Core Facets to The Montessori Way of Sensorial Training
The Child
The Teacher
The role of the child is that of the Chief Explorer - so to speak
3
The role of the materials is to be the physical manifestation of the system the teacher is guiding the child through. They also have to posses certain key characteristics
Focusing in on the Materials... Materials
Let’s dig deeper to discover the Montessori’scharacteristicskeyofSensorialTrainingmaterials
The
6 Key Characteristics Sensorial Materials Gradation of Difficulty - Materials present one difficulty at a time - The materials have the potential for extensions that can challenge the difficulty level Control of Error - The material itself shows you where you are “right/wrong” - Allows the child self-correction (through the use of the senses) Beauty - Visually attractive - Tactile in nature Limits - Limited in quantity - Designed to clarify and help the child order what they already know/have in their arsenal Isolation of Quality - 1 variable stimulus at a time - Isolation (core focus) on a specific sense - Contrasts Motivation of Activity - Stimulates muscle memory - Stimulates purposeful movement (refining movement skills - gross and fine) - Encourages repetition Sensorial Materials
Montessori, M. (1988). The Absorbent Mind. Oxford: Clio Press
“No sensorial education can ever occur except as a part of some total activity I which both intelligence and movement are involved … the child who has worked with our sensorial apparatus has not only acquired greater skill in the use of his hands, but has also achieved a higher degree of perceptiveness towards those stimuli which come to him from outside the world. To this extent the outside world has become enriched for him, because he is able to appreciate delicate differences which to a less perceptive person might as well not exist.”
In this next portion, we will deep dive on 3 Sensorial Materials, and how they refine the senses Color Box 1 Thermic Tablets Sound Boxes Visual Training Tactile Training Auditory Training
SAMPLE RESULTS
is meant to be used in tandem with a plain/simple work mat - on which the colors would show clearly
TheYellow.box
Color Box 1 OBJECTIVES - Refine visual perception of color - Teach names of colors - Refine matching skills
- The child learns the names of the colors, and has a new key to the world - able to put a name to the characteristics of his own artworks
The teacher will present this material by holding the tablets with pincer grip and laying the colors out, giving them appropriate names. This set is perfect for a 3PL in color vocabulary (Red, Blue, Yellow), and also perfect for Matching
Theactivities.control of error is Visual
PRESENTATION/S
Sensorial Training Materials Visual
Training
The material is a box that contains 6 color tablets in 3 different colors (2 in each color). In this box, the colors are Primary: Red, Blue, and
ABOUT THIS MATERIAL
Sensorial Training Materials Tactile Training
Thermic Tablets
OBJECTIVES
PRESENTATION/S
SAMPLE RESULTS
This material is a box with 4 sections: 2 tablets in each section. There are pairs of tablets in the same material: wood, steel, slate, felt. The box is again meant to be used in tandem with a simple mat - something neutral with low distractions)andhelpseliminationwithproperties.insulating/conductionItisalsooftenusedablindfold(astheofthesenseoftouch,toheightenothersenses,eliminatesunnecessary
- Refine child’s awareness of -temperatureRefinechild’s sense of touch
ABOUT THIS MATERIAL
- The child can distinguish between cool, cold, icy/lukewarm, warm, hot; etc. Gives him vocabulary for his feelings, and awareness of sensations at play in an interaction
This is a matching exercise. A blindfold is put on and one must feel each material and match them to each other based on their temperature 3PLs, matching games, etc are very good uses of this material
SAMPLE RESULTS
3. Grading Activity: in which one will lay the cylinders out in order of soft to loud or loud to soft
The child gets caught cheating/lying on teachers/parentstest/to
There are multiple presentations here. You can either do a:
ABOUT THIS MATERIAL
OBJECTIVES
The child exhibits clear performance anxiety, fear of failure, helplessness.
1. Matching Activity: where one shakes the cylinders by the ear and identify matching sounds
2 identical wooden boxes - one with blue cylinders, the other with red. However, inside of them are the same things - each cylinder is filled with different things (grains, particles, etc, of different sizes that have their own distinct sounds). For each 1 red cylinder, there is a matching blue cylinder.
2. Listening Activity: where one shakes the cylinders by the ear and simply listens
Sensorial Training Materials Auditory Training
Sound Boxes
PRESENTATION/S
Why does refinement of the senses matter? RECAP
“We cannot create observers by saying 'observe', but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses.”
Montessori, M. “The Montessori Method: The Origins of an Educational Innovation.”
When you are able to put a name to something, and see something in different ways, you can also gain a deeper understanding of the thing itself.
When your sense of observation is refined and more acute, you can notice more about the world around you - being more well-equipped to take the time to pause, focus notice, and interpret things that are happening in your surroundings.
A child who understands the way colors deepen across shades, would have a different experience gazing out at the ocean. He would be able to take note of the gradual darkening or lightening, and over time observe how that is linked to depth.
...discriminating...Ordering......andclassifying...
Benefits of Sensorial Training
Multi-Faceted Experience Refined
When you are able to notice more, understand more, etc about the world around you, so can you also order and classify the world around you better.
The child with keen ears can tell the difference between construction sounds (common around the city) and gunfire or fireworks, would be able to feel a greater sense of order, understanding, and control, in his own place and life.
Deeper Understanding
A child with refined senses would experience sitting outdoors differently. He would be able to pick out the scent of flowers in the air at the same time as the sound of birds chirping, and the feel of the sun on his skin.
Now I leave a whole folder of these visuals, and a box of Legos (regular ones) that he can work with any time he likes. He is at them at least once a day for long stretches of time.
When he finds something he wants to build, he does the process over and over again until he masters it. He takes it apart, then puts it back together again - first with the reference, then without. He checks his work against the reference after and decides for himself if he feels he wants to fix it, or if he believes his work is an improved version
As he does this, I start to notice that he is doing it not just with blocks/Legos, but also with other toys - even going so far as accessing a tool box to take something apart, just to put it back together again. The act of devouring a challenge with his eyes (Visual Sense), and working through it with his hands (Tactile Sense), is naturally leading him to other (even more experiencescomplex)
Observant Guide
Deepened Experience Freedom + Hands On Work Repetition ImplicationReal-World
We travel a lot, and I have seen his refined visual sense culminate in our packing. I typically assign him his own small suitcase to pack, and I have noticed that he has great Spatial Reasoning. He can pack a bag like Tetris, moving things around (in a very purposeful, intentional way) to get everything to fit just right. He’s 4, and this real life skill will continue to come in handy as he grows!
Access +
A (real life!) example of how Sensorial Education leads to refined senses, that in turn leads to a richer internal and external life for a child
My son loves to build things. He’s like a little Engineer. When he was younger, to encourage that, I would leave limited numbers of same-sized square Duplo blocks out. As I noticed him master (on his own) grouping them by color, I began adding different shapes. I then noticed him grouping them by shape and color - ordering them from big to small; so I added a further challenge with reference cards (visuals he could copy)
Often, we look at a child in isolation and we think of that child as just a child, but everything they are learning today as children will determine who they become tomorrow as adults. They are whole and worthy in unique ways, just as adults are whole and worthy.
Child observes the fruit, it is yellow, it must be ripe [Visual Sense], he takes a bite - it is just on the cusp of sweetness [Gustatory Sense], now he knows this shade of yellow is not fully ripe
But has an even deeper potential to be doing this tomorrow:
The adult who, as a child, learned to observe, experience, and learn from experiences, could become a scientist, an inventor, a businessman, an entrepreneur, but ultimately - and perhaps most importantly: he could become a good man. Who notices (with his refined visual sense and observation skills) the unsteady pregnant woman boarding the underground train after him.. Who helps her because (with his tactile sense) he notices her bag is too heavy. And with the other areas in life that Montessori-from-the-start trains a child in (practical life, cultural and environmental sensitivity, etc), this man can do this very thing again and again into perpetuity. Because as a child, he built useful skills in observation, purposeful movement, and more.
When you are raising a child to have a deeper experience of the world, a clearer order in their minds, and a refined (and multi-faceted) way of looking at things, the child may be doing this today:
Montessori, M. (1988). The Absorbent Mind. Oxford: Clio Press
“The child is not an empty being who owes whatever he knows to us who have filled him up with it. No, the child is the builder of man. There is no man existing who has not been formed by the child he once was.”
Knowing what we know now HOW CAN ADULTS HELP CHILDREN DEVELOP THEIR SENSES?
1
Access to activities that are stimulatingespecially to the senses - helping in the kitchen (olfactory and gustatory), painting or building (visual and tactile)
A secure home, with just the right amount of sensorial stimulation/activities (access to colors, sounds, textures, temperatures)
Activities, challenges, projects that push their skills but are within their appropriate range so they can go into states of flow and repetition (necessary for mastery)
Engage in real conversations with your kids! Ask them what they notice, what they hear, what they see, what they taste
Parents Teachers
Curate a comprehensive, but not overwhelming Sensorial Activity shelf that is age appropriate and in accordance with the children’s interests
Instead of stepping in to initiate, let them initiate their play and exploration, and you follow suit
Give them ample time to be “bored”, quiet, and still Offer appropriate activities they can Talktrywith them - in real conversations
Cultivate a Observeenvironmentconducivethem,andrespond to those observations
Similar to above: get out of their way a little more often, and just let them be still. You can also be still with them
Do not overwhelm them with too many presentations. Allow them to sit and observe peers/the world around them, not just to constantly work on materials
Allow the children to tell you about what they’re learning. Ask them about their interests, what stands out to them, etc. When on a walk outdoors, ask if they can hear the birds, for example
Key things adults can provide for children to refine their senses
Spend lots of time in observation, taking notes and making adjustments to your shelves as necessary
2. “Child Development Through the Senses” Age of Montessori, 2015, http://ageofmontessori.org/development-through-the-senses/
1. Montessori, M. “The Absorbent Mind.” Clio Press (1988)
Bibliography
3. Montessori, M. “The Origins of an Educational Innovation : Including an Abridged and Annotated Edition of Maria Montessori's The Montessori Method.” Roman & Littlefield (2004)
Sources for photos are on the slides.