Discuss the purpose and benefits of sensorial training and illustrate your answer by describing the functions of 3 examples of sensorial materials.
Sensorial comes from the root word sense or senses. A new born does not have any experiences so he is given the ability to “…absorb impressions from his immediate environment just by being in the environment itself” (1, page 1). There are five areas where the senses are developed and refined. The child learns about different sizes, dimensions and colours through the visual sense. Auditory sense is refined through sound cylinders exercises to help the child to distinguish different tones and sounds. Children are exposed to different surfaces, temperature and weights by letting them hold certain objects to develop their tactile sense. By working on the smelling jars activities children are refining their smelling sense. Finally, children learn about their taste buds by given different liquid which consists of the taste sweet, sour, bitter and salty. The main purpose of sensorial exercises is for the child to “…acquire clear, conscious, information and to be able to then make classifications in his environment” (1, page 2).
In the knobbed cylinders exercise, there are 4 wooden blocks of cylinders, each containing 10 cylinders with knobs to fit into their respective sockets. Teacher first using her thumb, index and middle fingers to lift the first and the last cylinders and place them on the mat. She points to the bottom of the cylinders to give a diameter impression to the child. She then puts back the cylinders to the original sockets. Next she takes out the cylinders from left to right one by one and place them randomly on the mat. Then she leans forward to have a close-up look at the sockets to have a visual discrimination on the different width and depth of the sockets. Finally she puts the socket back one by one starting from the left. The control of error for this exercise is each cylinder shall fit into its proper place. Thick cylinders will not be able to fit into a thin socket and vice versa. Short cylinder will disappear from the surface if is placed in a deep socket. The way the material is designed is so that when a child makes a mistake, “…his attention is brought sharply to bear upon an obvious problem”(2, page 124). Also, the material progresses from easy to difficulty which in this case from variation of 1 dimension to multiple dimensions. The material encourages repetition to gain a better perception of the aim of the material. It also prepares the child for advanced learning such as the concept of left to right to prepare him for mathematics. Also, he is able to develop his pincer grip to prepare him for writing.
In the training of the child’s hearing, the child is exposed to sound boxes to increase the child’s ability to discriminate sound. There are two sound boxes each consists of four to six identical containers containing objects making various sounds. The containers from the first box are marked with red caps while the containers from the second box are marked with blue caps. The child first selects a red container shakes it by the left and right ears several times. Next he goes through the blue containers one by one to match the sound of the red container. On finding he will place them on top of the mat. At the bottom of each set of containers are marked with numbers to let the child know if he has matched the containers correctly. Apart from the matching exercise, the child also learns about classification of the loudness of objects through sound box grading. Using only one set of containers each marked with numbers presenting the loudness level at the bottom, the child is able to discriminate the auditory sound level. Both of these exercises help the child to develop concentration skills. Also indirectly they are preparing themselves for the silence game which further establishing an attitude of quietness in them.
The touch board is one of the exercises that develop a child’s tactile senses. Touch Board 3 consists of a board mounted with 4 strips of paper of difference grades (smooth, rough, rougher and roughest). Teacher starts by sensitizing the child’s fingers by dipping them into warm water. The child strokes the different surfaces top to bottom using the tips of his dominant hand each time naming the words of the surface (e.g. smooth).The control of error lies in the child’s own sense of touch and the different surfaces. The whole idea is to build tactical discrimination in a child. This further prepares him in language whereby he will be introduced to sand paper letters to learn about alphabets. Indirectly, new vocabularies are introduced to the child such as smooth and rough. The teacher may also conduct three period lessons to further instill the description of the surfaces to a child if she finds that child has trouble with identifying the word of the different surfaces.
In summary, the child should be given freedom of choice in doing the activities. Teacher should play a passive role and become the bridge between the environment and the child. By practicing that the child is able “to grow stronger, develop a distinctive personality, are well-disciplined, and acquire an inward health that is the direct and brilliant product of the freeing of the mind” (2, page 150).
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Bibliography
1. Modern Montessori International LTD, CMT 103 – Sensorial Training, London
2. M. Joseph Costelloe, S.J., The Discovery of the Child, New York, 1972
3. Paula Polk Lillard, Montessori – A Modern Approach, New York, 1972
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