The Sensorial Area
The Sensorial Area
“There is nothing in the intellect which is not first in the senses.”
Aristotle
We as human beings have been endowed with the unique gift of intellect. We are considered the top of the creation because of this intellectual ability to reason. Each human is born with the potential to have and use the intellect, however, intellectual maturity, like physical maturity grows as a result of good nutrition and plenty of exercise. The senses are the food of the intellect.
The concrete experiences of the sense organs nourish our mind. The mind is stimulated by our sensorial exploration and as it digests these impressions, we internalize them and exercise the intellect, forming new ideas and abstract concepts.
Dr. Montessori recognized that the senses play a fundamental role in the development of the intellect. The purpose of the sensorial area is to aid the child in her development of the ability to reason and use her intellect. The sensorial materials serve as a scientific guide for the child to clarify, catalogue, classify, and put in order the impressions of her environment. The goal of the sensorial activities is not simply to provide the child with sensory experiences. The world does an excellent job of that. In fact, from the moment of birth the child is bombarded with constant sensory input. The genius of the sensorial materials is that each activity isolates one particular sense and highlights specific qualities, thus providing the child with an opportunity to refine his understanding. For example, the Long Rods use the visual sense and focus on the attribute of length. The rods are all the same color and the same width. The only variable is length. As the child physically manipulates each rod, he gets a clearer impression of this quality. He develops what we call a “motor memory,” which is a knowledge or understanding based on one’s physical and sensory experience.
The child first explores materials with his senses, simply
“There is nothing in the intellect which is not first in the senses.”
Aristotle
We as human beings have been endowed with the unique gift of intellect. We are considered the top of the creation because of this intellectual ability to reason. Each human is born with the potential to have and use the intellect, however, intellectual maturity, like physical maturity grows as a result of good nutrition and plenty of exercise. The senses are the food of the intellect.
The concrete experiences of the sense organs nourish our mind. The mind is stimulated by our sensorial exploration and as it digests these impressions, we internalize them and exercise the intellect, forming new ideas and abstract concepts.
Dr. Montessori recognized that the senses play a fundamental role in the development of the intellect. The purpose of the sensorial area is to aid the child in her development of the ability to reason and use her intellect. The sensorial materials serve as a scientific guide for the child to clarify, catalogue, classify, and put in order the impressions of her environment. The goal of the sensorial activities is not simply to provide the child with sensory experiences. The world does an excellent job of that. In fact, from the moment of birth the child is bombarded with constant sensory input. The genius of the sensorial materials is that each activity isolates one particular sense and highlights specific qualities, thus providing the child with an opportunity to refine his understanding. For example, the Long Rods use the visual sense and focus on the attribute of length. The rods are all the same color and the same width. The only variable is length. As the child physically manipulates each rod, he gets a clearer impression of this quality. He develops what we call a “motor memory,” which is a knowledge or understanding based on one’s physical and sensory experience.
The child first explores materials with his senses, simply