Sensitive Periods and the Brain - An Introduction
/“When you watch your child repeating an action, persevering until she has finished, you will realize that she is doing something far more important than it may appear. So often we cannot understand our child’s need to repeat, what to us, appears to be a pointless action, with such fierce determination and concentration. What you are watching, at this moment, is the action of ‘life building up.’”
A friend recently told of how her daughter one day woke up and started using the potty independently. This child, just over two years old, had been potty training for the better part of six months at this point.
It had been a roller coaster...some days feeling like she had it down. Other days multiple accidents. Regardless, until now, this skill required significant parent support, prompting, and assistance.
Why, all of a sudden, after months of tremendous effort on her parents’ part, did she wake up one day and go to the bathroom by herself? Unprompted. Unannounced. No drama.
Sensitive Periods
Sensitive Periods are when a child’s brain is ready to experience a burst of growth in a particular subject area. Just as the newly independently potty-trained daughter, children’s brains are designed to be especially receptive to certain skills and information at a specific developmental period.
Maria Montessori identified eleven such areas from ages birth to six:
Language (birth - 6)
Senses (birth - 5)
Movement (birth - 4.5)
Small Objects (1 - 3)
Toilet Learning (1 - 3)
Order (1 - 5)
Music (2 - 6)
Grace & Curtesy (2.5 - 6)
Reading (3 - 5.5)
Writing (3.5 - 4.5)
Math (4 - 6)
The age ranges associated with each Sensitive Period are rough guidelines meant to help give adults a starting point.
Interested in watching and observing your child and trying to recognize these for yourself? Print out the graphic below as a visual.
The Brain
The theory sounds great and all, but what exactly (and scientifically) is going on in a child’s brain to prove that Sensitive Periods are an actual thing to base an entire educational approach around?
So glad you asked.
A study done by Eric Knudsen (Stanford University School of Medicine) acknowledges this theory and digs more into the brain activity during this phenomenon.
Knudsen found that these Sensitive Periods that we see behaviorally in a Montessori classroom are the “property of neural circuits.” These neural circuits are the pathways the brain forms to transmit and receive information.
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is a brain’s moldability. A brain’s plasticity determines its ability to be formed, in other words, its ability to learn. Sensitive Periods are a window of time when the plasticity of the brain actually increases.
Behaviorally, this looks like a child repeating and even seeking a certain activity or skill. Physiologically, this is the brain’s neural circuits - or communication pathways - waiting openly for direction and instruction.
Knudsen even went so far as to hypothesize that experiences provided during this time of invitation from the brain led to a changed landscape in the brain. In other words, supporting Maria Motnessori’s idea that “impressions do not merely enter his mind, they form it...” A brain, when given the right information at the right time, rebuilds itself to best incorporate this new acquisition into its very structure.
Timing it Right
Sensitive Periods happen at varying stages for each child. The key is for the parent or educator to recognize the signs and provide opportunities that allow him to explore this aspect of his environment. This will help him learn this skill with ease.
If a Sensitive Period is missed (and the skill is not acquired when the child’s brain is most developmentally ready to absorb it), the child will have to work much harder in the future to acquire this skill.
The classic example of this is a young child learning a foreign language compared to an adult learning a foreign language. The child will pick up the language with much more ease.
A study published in the Society for Research in Child Development stated, “even when a sensitive period ends, there may remain some capacity for change, but more energy is required for the circuit to revert to less stable connectivity.” This is all to say that learning can obviously take place outside of these perfect “windows of opportunity,” but it takes a much more concerted effort, and it doesn’t help form the brain in the same way.
This study went on to say, “Further, the degree of plasticity varies depending upon the circuitry involved. A synapse likely has more flexibility and responsivity to experiences that occur earlier and loses this flexibility to adapt as time passes.”
In the case of the independently potty-trained daughter, it benefitted her learning to have had plenty of patient training and practice leading up to her Toileting Sensitive Period. When this period opened up, she had all the tools in place to independently apply them toward mastery.
So it would seem that capitalizing on a sensitive period earlier, rather than later, is to the benefit of the child.
Through these two studies specifically as well as ongoing research and numerous other publications, we can see a common agreement between Montessori’s theories and their scientific basis.
As a way of building up a large amount of information in a relatively short period of time, a child’s brain opportunistically opens up neural pathways and responsivity for a period of time to acquire skills and knowledge with ease.
Capitalizing on Opportunities
Not Racing through Milestones and Standards
It is for this reason that many subjects are introduced at a seemingly early age in a Montessori environment: counting and one-to-one correspondence, phonetic alphabet, early reading, writing, musical skills, social skills, and more. All of these subjects are seen in the Primary room...before a child even reaches typical “school-age.”
This is not some attempt to push students through standards for the sake of an apparently rigorous education. Rather, this is a developmentally-focused approach to learning that produces strong foundations for the student’s educational career.
In this case, the student is the focus, and the material (or curriculum or standards) are mere tools.
The alternative would be waiting until the standards would dictat - making the young student’s brain bend to the will of an unforgiving curriculum as opposed to bending the adult-designed curriculum to best fit the child.
A Joyful Relationship with Education
It should go without saying that capitalizing on Sensitive Periods fosters a greater love for learning. A student who is given instruction on subject matter that interests him is much more likely to approach education with thirsty enthusiasm.
A teacher’s role is to observe the child carefully and prepare an environment that feeds his curiosity and developmental needs.
Fulfilled, peaceful, and happy students is a trademark of a Montessori education. A student who is encouraged to learn that which interests him is a student who will continue to pursue and crave learning for life.
It is in this, that the Montessori approach begins to lay the foundation for holistic learning. An environment where the adult follows the child. An approach that trusts in the science and developmental research guiding growth. A method that recognizes the child can only truly learn when he is willing and eager.