Montessori Child Development Stages
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Age 1-3 Development: AGE 1 TO 3+ |
The first essential for the child's development is concentration. |
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In the first days and months of life the child is intensely interested in watching and looking. At first his ability to focus is the distance between his eyes and the mother's face during nursing. Soon he is interested in watching mobiles that move gently in the wind. Mobiles should have no more than 5 objects and they should be real, such as butterflies, birds, or fish—things that move through the air or water. (2.5 months) |
When the older children and adults exactly mimic the baby's first attempts at making verbal sounds, a beautiful conversation, or song, can occur. Here the mother and baby are talking/singing to each other at the changing table. Using the kind of pacifier or gum soother that stays in the mouth and does not have to be held there, can cause an addiction and prevent this wonderful stage of human communication from occurring. (2.5 months) |
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| The This baby was visiting a home where there were no visual mobiles and he needed to carry out this important daily "work". So the mother hung a scarf over a lampshade in front of an open window, creating a moving object for the baby to focus on. Suddenly she realized that it seemed he was ready to move beyond watching, to touch! He tried with his whole body to reach the fringe of the scarf, but is not yet at the stage of controlling his hands to this extent. (2.5 months) | At first the baby was able to kick or reach for the mobile only, but gradually learned how to grasp the wooden ring at the bottom and to shake it, making a kind of first music with the lovely sound of the wooden chimes. His excitement shows with the whole body as he experiments—moving, the sound happens, holding still the sound stop—over and over. This is valuable research and should not be interrupted. |
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Each stage of learning to use the hand is important work for the child. Here the "work" is concentrating on holding an object with one hand, then grasping it with the second hand, and then letting go with the first hand. Then the reverse and repeat, and repeat. When not interrupted a child will work on this hand transfer for a long time. Until he is finished for now. |
The child was looking around, exploring the environment visually, and suddenly the music began to play. He held very still, looking in the direction of the music, the CD player. Recognizing the intensity of the child's focus, the mother sat just as still for a long time, until the child showed her—by turning his head, sighing with satisfaction, and again focusing on the environment, that he had finished listening to the music. | ||||
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This "perfect pacifier" is far superior to the kind of fooler or pacifier that stays in a child's mouth for long periods of time, with the potential interruption of language development and physical development of teeth and gums, not to mention the risk of creating a habit of creating happiness from oral stimulation (overeating or drinking, smoking, etc.). This "tool" has just come back into production and will soon be available from the Michael Olaf Montessori Company. www.michaelolaf.net |
This child has exercised daily on his tummy from the first weeks of life, strengthening his muscles. Now, given a ball that moves slowly, he is inspired to take the next step. He is learning to slither forward on his tummy trying to reach the ball. Soon he will have the muscular control to crawl, then pull, up and finally to stand and walk—just like the other humans he has been observing. (4-5 months) | ||||
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MORE FIRST YEAR INFORMATION ARTICLE: Baby Einstein, Not So Smart After all: article on Baby Einstein Videos: Einstein Videos WEANING: An interesting article written by Susan Stephenson, and a fellow Assistants to Infancy (Birth to Three) teacher. This is a PDF file: weaning TOILET LEARNING: In the Montessori 0-3 program children are not "trained" to use the toilet, but they are taught the natural steps. An article by a Birth to Three teacher in Amsterdam: toilet learning BIRTH TO THREE MATERIALS: for the home or infant community: materials
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Children all over the world exhibit the same stages of development when they have an environment that supports them. A mattress on the floor, freedom to move and explore in a very safe place. This little Polish boy shows us the whole body rocking stage that precedes crawling, the balance and confidence to develop the abilities to get off of his floor bed, and no doubt the excitement to move from the bedroom to the wider world of the rest of the home. |
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MORE BIRTH TO THREE YEARS INFORMATION GENERAL MONTESSORI INFORMATION ADOLESCENTS LEARNING ABOUT PARENTING |
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