The Sensitive Periods in a child’s life was Dr. Maria Montessori’s greatest discovery. Though it was first discovered by a Dutch Scientist, Hugo de Vries, it was on animals, but Dr. Maria Montessori found the existence of this period in children too. The term “Sensitive Period” is used for a specific period of a child’s mental growth, during which the different sensibilities enable him to choose from a complex environment what is suitable and necessary for his development at that particular stage of a “Sensitive Period”. It is a limited time when the child shows a strong attraction to a particular activity. This activity helps the child and is drawn to aid the child in her physical, mental and emotional development. The child constantly performs certain activities over and over again without signs of fatigues. It is believed that children are susceptible to learning skills at specific ages. It lasts till the child has acquired or mastered the skill. These sensitive periods exist during his psycho-motor development. These periods may overlap other sensitive periods. These sensitive periods are derived from the unconscious and leads children to conscious and creative activities.
During a sensitive period it is very easy for the child to acquire certain abilities, such as language. These periods are the child’s most important states of his development and create a confident adult. If the child is not helped in the right manner during these stages with the right environment it could retard the child’s spontaneous psychical development. It must be understood that adults have no direct influence on these states.
To bring about the understanding and peace with the child an adult needs to understand the different expressions a child shows in his behaviour. For example when a child smiles, laughs with glees, claps his hand etc., one can understand these signs as external manifestations of a... [continues]
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