MONTESSORI SENSORIAL METHOD

             Maria Montessori developed a systematic method for training the senses of individuals.  She believed that the training of the senses was of utmost importance in education.  The development of the senses should precede all other educational experiences.  In children especially between the ages of three to six, the sensorial experience is essential for laying the foundation for other areas of development.  As in all other areas of the Montessori classroom, the sensorial section should be set up in such a way of assisting the natural development of the child.

            During the early preschool years, the child is fully aware of and attracted to the environment.  The sensorial environment provides the children with materials to explore all of the senses.  To help the child discriminate dimension and form, Montessori designed cylinder blocks, pink cubes, rectangular prisms, and red rods.  These materials help the child to develop visual discrimination of height, width, shape…as well as the development of coordination, concentration, independence…color tablets found in color box 1, 2, and 3, help the child to develop his sense of color discrimination and aesthetic sense.  In working with the geometric solids, bases, the geometric cabinet, and metal insets, the children develop a concrete understanding of the variety of different shapes and they are also being prepared to learn geometry.  The monomial, binomial, and trinomial cubes prepare the child for math and, understanding theorems as well as discriminating color, form, and dimension.  Along with these materials Maria Montessori also designed materials and exercises to develop the auditory, olfactory, the baric, tactile, and streognostic senses.  Through the concrete explorations of these sensorial exercises at this critical stage in their development, the children become aware of their different senses and, they are better able to understand their own individuality and the environment which surrounds them.