2. Sensitive periods
• A sensitive period is a phase or window in a child’s
development when they are most capable of and
responsive to absorbing a certain skill.
3. Sensitive period
• Movement: birth to 2.5
• Language: birth to 6
• Toileting: 1 to 3
• Small objects: 1 to 3
• Order: 1.5 to 4
• Refinement of Senses: 2 to 6
• Grace and Courtesy: 2 to 6
• Social Skills: 2.5 to 5
4. Sensitive Period for Movement: Birth
to 2.5 years
• From birth to two and a half years, children show a
sensitive period for movement.
• It is easy to see this in the great effort infants put in
as they quickly transition from lying to rolling to
sitting to crawling to pulling up.
• They use their hands in different ways to explore
their environment and materials with more
precision every day.
5. • Through the second year, toddlers continue this self-
motivated movement but with more refinement,
coordination, and control.
• Toddlers’ need to move and exert energy often seems
limitless, and it practically is.
• D was a late crawler and walker, so her first year was
all about fine motor.
• Now, as a toddler, she is going through a huge
sensitive period for gross motor.
• Every day includes a combination of a toddler-led
walk, sliding at the playground, carrying heavy
objects around the house, and climbing up and down
the stairs on repeat.
6. • Giving her these opportunities to exercise her large
movements gives her the ability to focus on her
smaller work as well as eat and sleep better.
• Montessori identified a number of "Sensitive
Periods," times when children's development
motivated them toward an interest in particular
qualities or dispositions.
• The Sensitive Period to Movement is one.
7. Accommodations in the
environment
- Design particular rooms or areas of your home that
are prepared for the free-exploration that comes
with free movement
- Provide a low bed that your child can get in and out
of independently, even from infancy.
- Avoid high chairs that require your child to be
belted in to place, and look, instead, for chairs that
are small enough to allow your child to place his or
her feet on the floor while sitting.
8. • Offer objects of various size, shape, texture and
weight with the express purpose of being moved:
baskets filled with items to carry from one side of
the room to the other or bags to hoist over
shoulders as your toddler ambles about.
• And most importantly, understand that your child’s
motivation to move, especially in toddlerhood, is
beyond his or her ability to control. It is through
the movement that self-control develops.
