Foundations & Philosophy
Sensitive Periods
Sensitive periods are blocks of time with in the time frame of the absorbent mind (0-6) when he is particularly absorbed and interested in something in their environment to the exclusion of everything else. Often the child can be seen repeating over and over a particular sequence of exercises for no apparent reason.
He is often working toward completion or perfection. This motivation is purely driven by the child's need to connect with his world and find out who he is and what he is made of. The more the child engages in activities the more he develops and understands himself.
The first sensitive period to show is for "Order" and is observed early during the first year of life and continues through the second year. Order has to do with consistency, patterns and groups. This order helps the child categorize his perceptions and begin developing an inner framework for understanding and referencing. It isn't placement of objects he needs to identify, but the relationships between objects.
An example: I came home to my granddaughter of about six months old with a new pair of reading glasses on my face. I had never worn glasses around her. Instead of being joyous to see me with smiles, her eyes looked at me almost horrified. I thought poor thing what is the matter? Why am I so frightening to her? Instantly it came to me to take off my glasses. As soon as I did she relaxed and let me change her bottom with smiles. It was out of order for her.
The second sensitive period is the desire to explore the environment with tongue and hands. The qualities of objects are being absorbed now. The child is learning in a very concrete way: soft, smooth, abrasive, sweet and nasty with out learning the words, but when the words come the experiences have already been created to build on. Now they just have to connect the words with experience. The hand is a very important instrument for intelligence. The exploration period develops neurological structures for perceiving and thinking.
The next sensitive period, walking is the most obvious. Children enter a new realm and become even more actively involved in development. The fourth sensitive period is intense interest in tiny objects that we pass over every day. The fifth period is observed through an interest in social norms and deviance. Children want to understand civil rights and establish community. This is a good time to emphasis manners and social graces as they are readily accepted and practiced.
The sensitive periods unveil a natural pattern in the child's development to gain knowledge of his environment and himself. The absorbent mind provides the special natural characteristic whereby he processes and accomplishes this knowledge.
-written by Erica Thomas