Maria Montessori created the Montessori Method in the early 1900s. During her early career, she encountered children that were termed "idiot children". They were placed in asylums. It was while watching them and other children that she started to realize the children were trying to learn but were using their hands. She found the work of several doctors over the next few years to be interesting and learned from them. She took the ideas of "education of the senses" and "education of movement" and changed them into her own system. Her ideas were based upon "the universal characteristics of childhood". Her method can be summed up in about six statements.
Children have absorbent minds. They soak up information from all around themselves. The first six years of a child's life have this capacity, which is unique. The impressions made on the mind actually help form it. Language is a great example of this phenomenon. Children learn to speak their mother tongue from listening to their parents and others, it is not taught to them.
There are sensitive periods that children pass through. Children will repeat an activity repeatedly, being very absorbed by it. This is his natural tendency to learn using his senses. They have a sensitivity to order. Having a routine helps children deal with all the new knowledge they are acquiring. Other sensitive periods relate to learning language and walking. He is also learning social aspects and behaviors. He realizes that he is part of a group and wants to interact with other children.
A large part of her method is based on her belief that children want to learn. They learn by playing and experimenting with everything. Most of the play is a response to his needs which come from inside. Help him to play and join in to add social interaction and encouragement. She felt that there is a great connection between their brain and hands. All children learn at their own pace and it various from child to child.
She believed that children pass through three stages of development. The way that children learn changes from one stage to another. The stages roughly coincide with ages of birth to age six, six to twelve, and twelve to eighteen. She believed that care must be taken during this last phase, called adolescence, as it is just as important as the first two stages.
Children strive for independence from a very early age. Parents and teachers need to give the child the skills he needs to reach his full potential. Sometimes parents help too much or in the wrong way though. Patience is needed while a child learns to button up his own shirt. By doing it for the child, it will take longer for him to develop that skill.
Her method has been largely verified over the last two decades as more observation and research proves her theories. Children need as much physical and intellectual freedom as possible. The environment for a child has a big influence on his development in addition to how his parents and other adults treat him.
