Page "Sensitive periods" Paragraph 2

According to Montessori, during a sensitive period it is very easy for children to acquire certain abilities, such as language, discrimination of sensory stimuli, and mental modeling of the environment.

Once the sensitive period for a particular ability is past, the development of the brain has progressed past the point at which information can be simply absorbed.

The child must then be taught the ability, resulting in expenditure of conscious effort, and not producing results as great as could be produced if the sensitive period had been taken advantage of.

Montessori was not very specific in her published works about the precise number, description, or timing of these sensitive periods.

However, in her lectures to teacher trainees she set out several periods with the approximate ages to which they applied.

More importantly, she believed, adults should observe the behavior and activities of children to discover what sensitive periods they are in.