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Trillium Montessori

Montessori Language: An Overview of the Materials and Curriculum

February 29, 2024 By Gabrielle Kotkov

The Montessori approach to language and literacy development in early childhood is grounded in the belief that children learn best through hands-on, experiential learning. In a Montessori classroom, children are encouraged to explore language and literacy through a variety of activities and materials. 

Montessori schools place a strong emphasis on developing literacy skills in young children, with the goal of creating confident, independent readers and writers, with a passion for the written and spoken word. By providing a dynamic and engaging learning environment, Montessori educators help children develop a love of reading and writing that will last a lifetime.

Table of Contents

The absorbent mind, the sensitive period for language, the human tendencies for communication and expression, sound games, songs, poems and books, oral storytelling, grace and courtesy, enrichment of vocabulary activities.

• Practical Life activities 

Sensorial activities

Metal insets, the sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet, writing sandpaper letters on a chalkboard, placement of letters on a line, writing letters on lined paper, capitals and punctuation, object boxes, action cards, phonetic books for beginning readers, puzzle words, classified cards, phonogram reading folders, labeling the environment, function of words, reading analysis, montessori and the science of reading.

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Language Learning in the First Plane of Development

During the First Plane of Development , which spans from birth to age six, children have an Absorbent Mind that allows them to effortlessly absorb the language spoken around them. They do not need to be explicitly taught grammar or syntax; rather, they subconsciously learn the rules of language through their natural interactions with their environment. Montessori educators take advantage of this developmental stage by providing children with a rich language environment that includes a variety of materials and activities designed to promote the development of oral language skills, even before a child starts to read or write.

Maria Montessori identified many “ sensitive periods ” within the First Plane of Development, during which children have a heightened sensitivity and interest in particular activities or concepts. The Sensitive Period for Language spans from birth to around age six.

During this time, children have an intense interest in language and are highly receptive to learning it. This period is characterized by a heightened ability to distinguish between different sounds and a natural inclination to imitate and communicate with others. During this period, children are particularly receptive to learning language and can easily acquire new vocabulary and grammar rules. Montessori language materials and activities are designed to take advantage of this sensitive period and provide children with opportunities to develop their language skills in an engaging way.

Humans have natural tendencies for communication and expression , which are particularly evident in young children. Montessori believed that children have an innate desire to communicate and express themselves, and that this desire drives their language development during the first plane of development. By providing children with a rich language environment and opportunities for self-expression, Montessori educators help to facilitate and support their language development.

Oral Language

In the Montessori language curriculum, the development of oral language is the foundation for reading and writing. As soon as children enter the Montessori Primary classroom at the age of 2.5 to 3 years old, they are surrounded by rich, dynamic language . Children are encouraged to speak and listen in a supportive and nurturing environment, which helps to build their confidence and self-esteem. In the Montessori classroom, children engage in a wide range of activities that promote the development of oral language skills . These include sound games , storytelling, singing, poetry recitation, Grace and Courtesy lessons, and conversation.

Sound games in the Montessori classroom are interactive activities designed to help young children develop phonemic awareness and auditory discrimination skills . These games involve the exploration and recognition of different sounds in spoken language. Children listen attentively to identify and isolate sounds within words, enhancing their ability to distinguish phonetic elements. Sound games lay the foundation for reading and writing, fostering an early understanding of the connection between sounds and letters, which is crucial for literacy development in the Montessori approach.

Songs, poems, and books foster a rich language environment and stimulate a love for literature and communication. Through songs and poems, children experience the rhythm, melody, and cadence of language, enhancing their phonological awareness and memory. Books, carefully selected to align with the child’s age and interests, encourage a passion for reading and storytelling. They provide opportunities for exploration, vocabulary expansion, and comprehension skills development. In a Montessori classroom, these literary elements are integrated into various lessons, enhancing language development and nurturing a lifelong love of language and literature.

Oral storytelling fosters imaginative thinking and language development as children engage with rich narratives and vivid descriptions. Montessori educators tell real stories to children, helping them develop their understanding of the world around them and exposing them to stories with a beginning, middle and end.

Grace and Courtesy lessons instill respect, empathy, and social awareness, laying the foundation for positive relationships and conflict resolution skills among peers. Through modeling and practice, children learn the vocabulary for polite greetings, sharing, and cooperation, fostering a harmonious and inclusive classroom environment.

Through enrichment of vocabulary activities like naming objects in the environment, identifying qualities in the environment, and playing response games, children gain the vocabulary to talk about their observations and experiences in the classroom environment.

Preparing the Hand for Writing

Montessori education places a strong emphasis on the preparation of the hand for writing. From the moment they enter the classroom, children are introduced to a range of activities that help to develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, from the button frame and pouring to sewing and pin-punching. Activities in the Practical Life and Sensorial areas help children develop control of movement, a sense of order, and the hand strength essential for writing. These activities also help children develop concentration, focus, and attention to detail, skills that will help them when they work on longer lessons in the Language area .

Practical Life activities

Practical Life activities such as pouring, polishing, scrubbing, and threading help develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, laying a solid foundation for handwriting. By engaging in these purposeful tasks, children strengthen the muscles in their hands and fingers, enhancing their dexterity and control, which ultimately supports their ability to hold a pencil and write with ease.

Sensorial activities like tracing shapes from the Geometry Cabinet and pairing and grading Tactile Tablets refine children’s tactile perception and hand movements, which are essential for writing. Through these experiences, children develop a heightened awareness of shapes, textures, and spatial relationships, facilitating their ability to form and recognize letters with precision and confidence.

The first time a child holds a pencil in the Primary classroom is in the Metal Inset work. This activity helps the child to develop hand strength and control, left-to-right tracking, and fine motor skills that include a tripod pencil grip, lightness of touch, evenness of pressure, continuity of line, and control of line.

“Thus we would use a kind of gymnastics to prepare the mechanisms of the hand. This preparation can be compared, in view of its goal, to the other, intellectual preparation for writing, achieved by means of the moveable alphabet. The mind and the hand are prepared separately for the conquest of written language and follow different roads to the same goal.” – Maria Montessori, The Formation of Man

Montessori Materials for Writing

In Montessori education, writing is taught before reading because it allows children to express themselves and develop their language skills in a natural way. When children learn to write, they are able to express their thoughts and ideas in a concrete way, which helps to develop their language skills and prepares them for reading. Writing is also an easier mental process than reading. Writing requires children to know the sounds of the letters and put them together to form a word. Reading requires an extra step: children must know the sounds of letters, string them together to form a word, and attach meaning to that word, in order to understand an author’s intent.

Writing also helps children develop an understanding of the relationship between sounds and letters. By teaching writing first, children can begin to associate sounds with specific letters and learn to form letters correctly. 

Learning Letters

Learn how to present the Montessori sandpaper letters and corresponding sound games to develop phonemic awareness skills.

One of the foundational tools used in the Montessori environment to teach writing is the Sandpaper Letters . The sandpaper letters are wooden boards with sandpaper letters on the surface. Children trace the letters with their fingers, feeling the texture of the sandpaper as they learn to form the letters correctly. This tactile experience helps children develop muscle memory of the letter. They also absorb the visual form of the letter, as well as the sound of the letter, so they receive sensory input about the letter through three senses.

The moveable alphabet is another essential material in the Montessori environment for teaching writing. The moveable alphabet is a set of wooden letters that children can use to create words and sentences. Children can move the letters around to create words, which helps them develop an understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds. They can begin working with this material before they’re able to read words, and before their hand is able to form the letters using a pencil.

“ The exercises with the moveable alphabet place the whole language in motion. They provoke a real intellectual activity…These continuous exercises, therefore, by means of which both spoken and written words are built up, do not only prepare the way for writing, but for correct spelling as well.” – Maria Montessori, The Formation of Man

Writing Stages

Children progress through several stages of writing in the Primary classroom, building on the skills and hand strength they have developed in other areas of the classroom. 

Children begin by feeling and writing sandpaper letters on a plain chalkboard. This gives them a large surface on which to practice creating the shapes of the letters, and the impermanence of chalk allows them to feel comfortable with error.

Once children are comfortable writing letters, they receive a lesson on the placement of letters on a line. They learn to group lowercase letters based on whether they are “short” letters (such as a, e, o), whether they extend below the line (such as p, y, q), or extend above the line (such as f, l, d). This lesson is usually given with the wooden Moveable Alphabet letters and a rug or mat with horizontal lines, on which children can place the letters. 

After children have received a lesson on the placement of letters on a line, they begin to practice writing letters on lined paper. At first they use paper with wide lines, and then advance to paper with more narrow lines as their hand strength and control increases.

Once children have experience with writing words and sentences on paper, they learn about capitals and punctuation. Children learn about the different types of punctuation and how to use them correctly. They also learn about capital letters and when to use them. This helps children develop their writing skills and prepares them for more advanced language work.

The Montessori approach to reading is unique in that it focuses on the development of a child’s total reading ability. This means children do not only learn how to read words, but also how to understand and appreciate what they are reading. The progression of “total reading” in Montessori language education is divided into three stages: mechanical, interpretation, and appreciation.

Phonetic Reading (Mechanical)

The mechanical, or “decoding,” strand of Total Reading begins with oral language, even before children learn to read. Activities that support this include sound games , and eventually the sandpaper letters and the moveable alphabet. This stage also includes phonetic reading, as it teaches children how to read words by sounding out each letter and blending them together. When they first begin to read, children sound out words phonetically . Children continue to work with a variety of materials, such as phonogram reading folders, and decodable books to learn phonetic sounds and recognize graphemes, to help them continue to decode past phonetic reading.

Phonetic Reading

This course shows you how to present the reading materials and includes all the printables needed to set up your reading area.

The first phonetic reading materials that children work with are the object boxes. Object Box 1 contains small objects that have simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) names, such as a cow, pin, and net . Object Box 2 contains objects whose names include phonograms, such as fi sh , b oa t, and br oo m . Children practice matching the labels to the objects and experience reading for the first time.

Action cards are another early learning activity in which children read one-word verbs, or “action” words, and then act them out. These verbs have simple constructions, such as jump, run, skip, and hop . By integrating reading with movement, children get a multi-sensory experience of reading.

When children begin reading, we offer them simple “decodable” books . Decodable books cater to emergent readers by presenting words that adhere to the phonetic rules they have learned so far. These books serve as valuable tools for practicing phonemic decoding and blending skills, gradually increasing in complexity to support the development of reading fluency and self-assurance. They allow children to build their confidence as readers and have the valuable experience of completing a book.

Beyond Phonetic Reading (Interpretation)

Once children have mastered mechanical reading, they move on to the second stage of total reading in Montessori language education: interpretation. This stage teaches children how to read for meaning , rather than just reading words. In this stage, children learn to recognize patterns in language, such as sentence structure and word order. They also learn to use context clues to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words. They read for information and for meaning, working with materials that include classified reading cards, action cards, and definition stages cards.

Puzzle words are commonly encountered words that do not follow typical phonetic patterns and therefore cannot be easily decoded by sounding out individual phonemes. These words are often taught as whole units rather than through phonetic reading. Examples of puzzle words include high-frequency sight words like “the,” “was,” and “are.” 

Classified cards are sets of cards that represent a specific subject or theme. These cards feature pictures or illustrations along with corresponding labels or descriptions. Children learn the vocabulary for these card sets as an oral language activity before they learn to read. They then revisit this activity when they have learned to read, matching labels to the picture cards. 

Phonogram reading folders offer children the keys to non-phonetic reading. Through this material, children learn that one phonogram can make multiple sounds – and the same sound can be created by different letter combinations. For example, the sound “ai” as in “rain” can also be spelled “ei” (vein), “ay” (play), and “a_e” (bake). This material allows children to progress from phonetic reading to non-phonetic reading.

In this activity, children read labels of materials and objects in the Montessori environment and place them around the classroom. Like action cards, this activity integrates reading with movement as they walk around the room. An added benefit of this activity is that other children can read the labels in passing when they see them around the classroom. 

Application of Reading (Appreciation)

In the Montessori environment, reading is not just a skill to be learned; it is a tool to be used and enjoyed. In this stage, children learn to appreciate the beauty and complexity of language . In addition to reading for meaning, children develop the ability to interpret the tone, style and intention of what they read, so that language becomes a tool of expression, not just functional communication. They read literature from a variety of genres and cultures, and learn to analyze and interpret what they read. 

Function of Words activities focus on helping students understand the roles and functions of different parts of speech within sentences. These activities involve exercises that teach children to identify and categorize words based on their grammatical functions , such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Children attach a color and a shape to each word based on its function: for example, a verb is represented by a large red circle, and a noun is represented by a large black triangle.

Word Study cards help children understand various constructions and patterns in their language. Through this material, they learn about different ways of forming plurals, different ways of forming masculine and feminine endings, compound words, word families, suffixes, and prefixes.

Reading analysis activities help the child to think about how all of the functions of words work together to form meaning in full sentences. Like the function of words activities, they attach a color and shape to each word in a sentence, based on how it relates to the verb. They learn to diagram a sentence in a sensorial, interactive way , deepening their understanding of language and the parts of speech. 

Montessori literacy is a unique approach to teaching reading that is grounded in the science of reading . The Montessori method emphasizes a phonetic approach to reading that is based on the natural development of language. Children are taught to read by learning the sounds of letters and then blending those sounds together to form words.

Montessori and the Science of Reading

Explore concepts and find evidence based activities to teach skilled reading.

Phonics is the science of reading that focuses on the relationship between letters and sounds. In Montessori language education, phonics is taught through a variety of materials such as sandpaper letters, moveable alphabets, and sound games.

Research has shown that phonics instruction is an effective way to teach children how to read. A study conducted by the National Reading Panel found that explicit phonics instruction improves children’s reading comprehension, spelling, and word recognition skills.

In Montessori language education, phonics is taught in a systematic and sequential manner. Children are first introduced to the sounds of the letters, then they learn how to blend those sounds together to form words. This approach helps children to develop strong decoding skills, which are essential for reading fluency.

“ The composition of words caused some real surprises. Children showed a great interest in the spoken language which they already possessed and sought to analyze it.” – Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

Language and literacy are a core part of the Montessori Primary curriculum. The Montessori approach emphasizes oral language development from an early age, building a strong foundation for learning to read and write. Montessori is also a phonics-based approach, which is in line with the science of reading.

Montessori education focuses on fostering a love for language and literature in children. This approach not only helps children to become proficient readers but also lays a foundation for lifelong learning.

Gabrielle Kotkov

Gabrielle Kotkov is an AMI-trained 3-6 Montessorian and educational consultant. She has a Masters in Child Studies and is certified in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She is particularly interested in the intersection between Montessori education and multilingualism, which led her to create the Multilingual Montessori website, Instagram and podcast. Gabrielle has taught in schools in NYC, Catania (Sicily), London, and Austin, Texas, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

• Gabrielle Kotkov https://www.trilliummontessori.org/author/gabrielle/ The Montessori Cultural Curriculum
• Gabrielle Kotkov https://www.trilliummontessori.org/author/gabrielle/ A Guide to Montessori Education
• Gabrielle Kotkov https://www.trilliummontessori.org/author/gabrielle/ The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom
• Gabrielle Kotkov https://www.trilliummontessori.org/author/gabrielle/ Grace and Courtesy in Montessori

Montessori Language: Curriculum and Materials for Success

The Montessori language approach is a very specific, structured approach to language learning that varies from many traditional methods. While the ultimate goals of writing and reading literacy remain the same, the Montessori approach likely differs from that which most are familiar.

Whether your child will be attending a Montessori school or you are simply hoping to learn more about teaching reading or writing at home, the Montessori language approach provides valuable insight into how children learn.

Montessori Language Philosophy

Before diving into learning or teaching, it’s important to understand the history of how this very structured method came to fruition.

Maria Montessori, the creator of what is now known as “the Montessori method” was a scientist who spent a great deal of time studying and interacting with children of all ages and backgrounds. Through her observations, she came to believe that children are born with everything they need to develop language.

However, she discovered that reading and writing must be taught. The Montessori language philosophy emphasizes the initial need for children to be exposed to language from the beginning of their life. As children grow, a variety of materials are used to help children develop the skills they need to read and write.

How is language taught in Montessori?

The Montessori language approach is very structured. Language is approached in a very methodical manner, beginning from birth and continuing throughout a child’s education. When children are born, Montessori parents and teachers prioritize exposing children to a variety of language.

Once children are a few years old and beginning to show an interest, parents and/or teachers begin by introducing sandpaper letters . Children are exposed to letters, learning their sounds as opposed to their names.

In contrast to a more traditional approach to language, children usually learn writing before reading within the Montessori method. Each new skill is not introduced until a child begins to show interest , and parents use their child’s own timetable as their guide for advancement.

Montessori Language Curriculum

Whether your child is homeschooled, attending a Montessori school or a student at a traditional school, you can easily apply a great deal of the Montessori Language Curriculum as your child begins to read or write.

These principles begin as early as birth and continue throughout a child’s education, meaning that it is never too early or too late to start a Montessori language approach. Here are the principles of the language curriculum using the Montessori method.

Spoken Language

The first phase of the Montessori language curriculum is spoken language. From birth until about age 6, children have what is referred to as an absorbent mind. This means that children are absorbing and learning from everything that is around them.

During this time, children are able to learn language simply by being around others who are using language. Children begin to create an internal vocabulary and practice communicating using the language they are exposed to.

Some great activities to promote language development during this phase are exposing children to songs and poems, reading to them, naming objects in their environment, and beginning a Montessori three part lesson.

Phonetic Awareness

Children continue to learn and absorb spoken language around them until about age 6. However, at some point during this time, they begin to show signs of readiness for the second phase of the Montessori language curriculum.

This time of phonetic awareness is when most parents and educators begin to introduce letters. In the Montessori approach, letters are introduced phonetically, based on their sounds. Rather than learning the names of the letters, children learn to identify the sounds that they make.

Children learn to hear the different sounds in the words that they speak or listen to, and start to identify the corresponding symbol within the alphabet.

Some great materials to use to introduce and encourage phonetic awareness are sandpaper letters and the moveable alphabet .

In contrast to the traditional method, children learn writing first in a Montessori setting. Montessori language methods introduce writing earlier than most – prior to reading. Parents and educators wait to introduce writing until the child shows interest and signs of readiness.

Once a child has mastered the sounds of the letters and begins to show interest in further learning, they are given the chance to create words.

In a Montessori setting, this is most often done using the moveable alphabet . Children first put letters together based on their sounds, creating words using their phonetic observations. This means that in the beginning, children are not expected to spell correctly.

Throughout the beginning of the Montessori language curriculum, children use materials and activities to help strengthen their fingers and hands for writing. After using the moveable alphabet, children are given the opportunity to create words by writing out the letters themselves.

In a Montessori setting, language skills build upon each other as activities continue to be used in more advanced ways while children grow. The use of sandpaper letters and the moveable alphabet help establish a foundation for reading.

Reading is often not taught in a formal setting, but rather, is introduced and practiced while children are learning other subjects.

Once children have begun to form words with the moveable alphabet, their learning can be enhanced through the use of language cards with vowels, symbols, matching and more. Parents and teachers continue to focus on the specific sounds throughout the Montessori language curriculum , rather than letter names.

Advanced Language Activities

• In late kindergarten or early elementary, children begin to analyze and study words with which they are familiar.
• During this time, they practice and develop different skills, such as alphabetizing, matching and classification.

Sentence Study

• Once children have a deeper understanding of individual words, they begin to analyze sentences.
• Here, previous knowledge is revisited and built upon in order for children to understand nouns, verbs and symbols.
• As they advance, they explore the function of words and specific grammar rules.
• Grammar cards and boxes are used to help students physically experience the words

Montessori Language Materials

Initial exposure to the Montessori language curriculum may feel overwhelming, and a bit limiting at times. However, with the right materials, you’ll find that teaching and learning in this way flows quite organically and naturally with children.

These materials are certainly not essential for introducing language with the Montessori method, but can be highly advantageous. Each material serves a specific purpose, and was created with great purpose and intentionality.

Sandpaper Letters

What are they.

Sandpaper letters are found on wooden squares, typically 6.25 x 4.75 inches in diameter. Each letter is created using high-grit sandpaper in either cursive or print. Vowels are presented on a blue background, with consonants on a pink background to help differentiate.

How are they used?

When introduced to Montessori language, children first trace the letter with their finger, feeling its shape on sandpaper. Next, they learn the sound the letter makes, rather than its name. For example, the letter B is not identified as “Bee”, but rather, with the sound it makes – “buh”.

Finally, they put this knowledge in place by engaging in letter matching and object sorting based on the look and sound of each letter.

What skill do they support?

Sandpaper letters help introduce the letter sounds. They serve as a visual symbol for each of the different sounds, and provide a sensory experience for children to enhance learning as they simultaneously trace the letter shape while saying its sound.

Moveable Alphabet

What is it.

The moveable alphabet is a key component of the Montessori language curriculum. It contains a small, physical version of each letter of the alphabet. It maintains the same color-coding system as sandpaper letters, and contains multiple copies of each letter.

How is it used?

Once children master the phonetic sounds of each letter, they begin using the moveable alphabet to identify different objects that begin with different letters. These letters can be added to sound boxes or used to create words as writing is introduced.

What skill does it support?

The moveable alphabet supports just about every language skill in the Montessori curriculum. After children master the sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet can help further solidify their phonetic knowledge, and allow them to practice both reading and writing.

Sound Boxes

Sound boxes are created by children, parents or teachers to help enhance their understanding of letter sounds. They are simple boxes, baskets or trays containing objects and pictures along with a letter from the moveable alphabet. These objects all begin with the corresponding letter in the basket.

Once children can identify the sounds that correspond to each letter, they are able to find objects or pictures in their environment that begin with the same sound. They put these objects together in a basket with the corresponding letter.

These sound baskets are helpful for solidifying children’s knowledge of letter sounds. They also encourage language practice as children identify different objects in their environment by name.

Metal Insets

Metal insets usually come in groups of ten, and each contains a pink metal frame surrounding a blue metal shape. The shape is cut out with a knob in the center, so children can remove it from the frame.

The Montessori language curriculum is very structured, and metal insets play a key role in preparing children for writing. Children use metal insets to develop strong finger and hand muscles by tracing the metal shape.

These metal insets are used to encourage finger strength and develop the hand dexterity that is needed to write letters. They are introduced prior to children beginning to write.

Vocabulary Cards

Vocabulary cards can be handmade or store-bought. They come in a three part set: an image, a word, and the image + word.

Montessori language skills are often practiced using these vocabulary cards. Once children can identify the letters and sounds, these cards help them practice forming words and matching words with each object.

Vocabulary cards help solidify knowledge of letter sounds and provide practice for children in the early stages of reading.

Rhyme Cards

Rhyming cards provide a visual for children with written words grouped into those that rhyme. Each set has a main word listed at the top, followed by a few others that rhyme. These words utilize the same color coding system as sandpaper letters, with blue vowels and pink consonants.

Once children begin to read, rhyming cards can be used to help them visually break down the words into different sounds, vowels and consonants. Children practice finding a word and matching it with words that rhyme based on their sound.

Rhyming cards are used to solidify phonetic understanding, and further develop reading skills. The cards provide opportunities for children to read words as well as hearing its sound and putting the sound into context by finding others that are similar.

The Montessori language curriculum might feel a bit foreign if you are used to a more traditional approach, but its methodical system helps learning flow naturally. With a solid understanding of each principle in the curriculum, any parent or teacher can implement some of the practices.

Introducing your child to language using a Montessori approach will allow them to take the lead, feel confident and gain independence in their learning. Try using some or all of the Montessori language principles in your home or classroom today!

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Montessori Language Program

We also have Montessori Albums available for teacher trainers and any Montessori guide who wants to refresh their practice. 

As long as a child is exposed to some language in his/her early life, they will almost always learn to speak. We can do much to enrich these offerings, to give the child a greater wealth of words at their command, but we can not make them learn to speak. But the same can not be said for writing or reading. These, we teach. Writing and reading require instruction of some sort and require some degree of effort by the child. They must exert themself on the components of our language to build it for themself. They must mount each of these steps:

• Step 1: Spoken Language:  create an internal dictionary and practice using the words in it
• Step 2: Phonemic Awareness:  learn the sounds within words and the sounds/symbols of our alphabet
• Step 3: Creating Words (Writing):  learn to put those sounds/symbols together to make words
• Step 4: Reading:  Learn to decode those sounds/symbols to decipher words
• Step 5: Reading for Meaning: Understand what you read (reading comprehension)

Step 1: Spoken Language

There are many ways the adult can facilitate the acquisition of verbal language but we can not directly teach it. Language is learned by being around other humans who speak to and with us. So, we start by preparing ourselves to have a nurturing and skillful relationship with our children. We train ourselves to offer the child rich oral language experiences. We sign, recite poems, ask questions, engage in light-hearted dialogue, provide accurate pronunciations and vocabulary for everything we see, etc. 

This is essential yet there is other work we do that is as important. We must adjust the child's environment, both physical and navigable (e.g., daily routines, human interactions), so that it does not in any way block the expression of the  human  tendencies.  We trust that given the right environment, the right support structure, the child is inherently capable of developing a strong, logical, ordered, and gracious voice.

So, much of the work we do in this area occurs naturally through human relationship. There are also many explicit spoken language lessons we can offer (see our blog posts for more details). 

But beyond what comes out of our mouths, we can profoundly influence the child's development by offering them an organized and accessible environment.

AN ORGANIZED, ACCESSIBLE ENVIRONMENT

Before we had the assistance of medical scanning or imaging devices, Dr. Montessori understood that the neural pathways in the child’s brain are formed as a direct result of how the child interacts with their environment. If the child has varied and relevant opportunities to lay their hands upon their world, to exercise their will, then they forge strong and numerous neural pathways.

If they are limited in their opportunities to move, to act with meaning and intention, there will be fewer, weaker neural pathways. In both cases, the child will rely on these pathways for the rest of their life. These are the foundations upon which they rest all future learning. We must work to make sure that that foundation is strong, solid, and organized. If we hope for the child to develop a voice that is logical and to express organized thought, we must provide them with surroundings that are organized. We must provide them with opportunities to exert their developing will and realize the logical consequences of those exertions.

In order to do all this, we need to prepare a space for the child that accommodates his size, abilities, interests, and time table. His space must give him opportunities to meet his basic needs without interference or unnecessary help. Can he reach the hook for his coat? Can he access the sink to get a drink of water or wash his hands? Is there a mirror located so that he can notice that his mouth or nose needs a wipe? Is there a spirit of open communication so that he is encouraged to engage with others? Do we move slowly and gracefully so that the child can notice exactly how we use our hands to open a lunch box or blow our nose? These tiny movements are usually overlooked by the adult but to the child, they are diamonds. The child is intensely interested in mastering the movements that we don’t even notice we make. This point about organization and consistent routines needs to be stressed because the organization of the child's surroundings are related directly to how the mind becomes ordered or disordered. As the child begins to interact with the environment, he is organizing his intelligence. If there is disorder in the child’s ability to master language, your first remedy is to remove the disorder and impediments in his surroundings.

RICH ORAL LANGUAGE EXPERIENCES

We also work to provide endless opportunities for the children to speak, to practice using their new language, and to hear our language in all of its stirring forms. It is through this practice, through the use and the slight adjustments the children make each time the words leave their lips, that the children work to perfect their speech, articulation, vocabulary, grammar, phrasing, sentence structure: to perfect their verbal expression. If they are to become masters of their language, they must gain experience using it.

We can use fine art and geography folders to help create opportunities for them to speak while we also help them develop background knowledge on key cultural subjects. Fine art is a particularly good way to get them talking. I mean, we can ask their opinion about art and whatever they say, they can't be wrong. It's art! (You can read more in our blog post on Art in the Classroom.)

It is essential for a young child to have a rich internal dictionary, a store of words at her command. Many of these words are absorbed effortlessly as she goes about her daily life. Words like “up” and “milk” and “hello” are examples. And yet our speech is often so quick or the child’s exposure somehow fragmented that it is not possible for the child to absorb everything in this manner. There are a few simple things we can do to adapt ourselves to meet the child’s needs in this area.

• Repeat new words when they are introduced ( e.g. , this is a spoon, a spoon)
• Articulate carefully and speak slowly, at the child’s pace
• Allow the child to sense your breath as you speak ( i.e. , the child’s face or hands are near enough to your  mouth  that they have a tactile sensation of how much air leaves your mouth for different sounds)
• Use the 3-period lesson to teach specific terms

The 3-Period Lesson .  We can use the 3-period lesson to directly teach specific vocabulary for everything in the classroom and home environment. We use real objects, photos/illustrations, and miniatures to facilitate this. For example, we walk with the 3 year old around the classroom on her first day. We touch the sink and say, “this is the sink, sink.” We touch the soap and say, “this is the soap, soap.” We touch the paper towels and say, “these are the paper towels, paper towels.” This first step of providing the names of each object is called Period 1.

In period 2, we ask the child to identify the objects we name. We may say, “Can you point to the paper towels? Can you stand next to the sink? Can you find the soap?” It is during this second period that most learning takes place. This is when the child’s body and mind are simultaneously engaged. So we must spend time here, before moving on to Period 3.

In Period 3, we point to each object in turn and ask, “What is this?” This is the most challenging part of the lesson because the child needs to find the correct word from all of the hundreds or thousands of words she knows. This is much more difficult than pointing to the right object when the vocabulary is provided and there are limited objects from which to choose.

When thinking about this example, please note that we do not overlook any vocabulary. We do not yet know how much or how little vocabulary the children have acquired. We must give them the opportunity to succeed in the requirements of their environment. How can this happen if they don’t know the names of the objects we refer to? So, we are sure to review the names of everything in their environment: hook, sink, tissue, floor, chair, etc. Often these reviews go very quickly but from time to time we meet the child who proceeds slowly through these often overlooked basics. And it is this child we must not miss!

As we continually give them language for what's physically in their environment, we also need to offer more. We can work towards satiating their incredible desire for more and more words with  vocabulary cards.   We use these both to offer 3-period lessons, but also for sorting and matching games.

Step 2: Phonemic Awareness

Traditional education demonstrates a somewhat predictable swing between the pedagogical concepts of phonics versus whole language. Every few years we hear that a school district or state educational commission is following a phonics based approach and then a few years later we hear that they recommend a whole language approach. These concepts swing in and out of favor like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. The reality is that both of these concepts are valuable and necessary. The Montessori approach teaches both, but it teaches phonetics first. Why? Because 50% of our language is phonetic. It follows predictable rules...and children love rules. They are drawn to find the logic and order within our world. The  human tendencies  for order and precision are very strong in the young child and the phonetic half of English is compliant in this respect. It is systematic and predictable. There are rules that, when followed, hold the key to cracking the code of English. We begin by teaching the child these rules. We teach them the sounds of each letter and of key phonograms. We encourage them to build phonetic words, and later, when they are ready, to read phonetic words. This process slowly builds the child’s confidence. It lays out the patterns of English. It presents the rules the children love to follow and gives them opportunities to practice applying those rules, to practice hearing the sounds in words, saying the sounds of each letter, writing letters, using those letters to build words, and reading phonetic words. Then, once the child has confidence, once the child believes she can crack the code of English, we slowly reveal the non-phonetic half of English... the words which don’t follow any rules at all. Wow! Words that don’t follow any rules at all? That’s interesting! And learning follows interest.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

Phonemic awareness begins with the child’s knowledge of sounds. The child must be able to hear the sounds in words. We can help children hear individual sounds by:

• Articulating slowly and carefully
• Encouraging the children to speak and pronounce words
• Repeating new words
• Singing songs
• Reading books
• Reciting poetry
• Playing sound games like I Spy

I Spy.  This is a simple game that gives the child the opportunity (but not the requirement) to identify the sounds in words. We play it with one or several children by saying, "I spy with my little eye, something in Kyra's hand that starts with the sound 'puh, 'puh.' Of course, Kyra is holding nothing but a pencil so her chance of succeeding is high. Continue to sound out the word, 'puh en sul.' Do this as much as you need to until one of the children hears it and says, "Pencil!" Continue for as long as the children are interested.

On another day, once they understand how the game works, walk about the room together and choose about six different objects, each with a different initial sound. Bring them to a workspace and play it again. "I spy with my little eye something that starts with the sound ‘mmmm, mmmm.’” We repeat the sound and then, unless the child beats us to it, we point to the monkey and say, “mmmm unkey, mmmm unkey.” We repeat this for all of the objects. All the while, we are encouraging the children to play it without us, to take the lead so that they are freed to work on this whenever they want to, without any help at all.

Once children master the beginning sounds in words, we move on to ending sounds and, finally, middle sounds (the hardest to hear). We do this by adding in details. For example, "I spy with my little eye something that starts with the sound mmmmm and ends with the sound eeeeee. Monkey, that's right!" The point is to help the children hear all of the sounds in words. Once they have some success with beginning and ending sounds, add middle sounds by saying, "I'm thinking of something on the rug that starts with the sound llll and ends with the sound duh." When the child finds the lids you continue by asking, "What other sound is in this word?" Help them hear the middle sound. Once they have success with this third level, you can ask them to notice all the sounds in longer words. Only after they succeed with this stage of sound work are they ready to take on movable alphabet work.

You can learn more about this process in our blog post on Sound Games: Teaching Phonemic Awareness.

LETTERS: THE SYMBOLS OF LANGUAGE

In Montessori classrooms, there are two primary pedagogical materials used to teach children the sounds that each letter makes and how you can put those letters/sounds together to create words: the sandpaper letters and the movable alphabet.

The sandpaper letters allow children to physically trace the shape of each letter while they say its sound, not its name. You can read all about that on our blog post on Developing Letter-Sound Knowledge.

The movable alphabet allows them to then put those symbols/sounds together to create words even before their hand can hold a pencil. You can read more about this in our blog post on Phonograms Made Easy.

So it is at this stage that we adults directly teach children the sounds and symbols of our language. This is where we demonstrate that spoken language is directly linked to written/printed language. This is where we make language concrete. 

What follows is practice. Once the children can associate sound with symbol, they need opportunities and inspiration to practice using that knowledge.

Step 3: Creating Words (Writing)

Traditionally when we think of writing, we think of putting pen to paper. But there is more to it than this. Before one can  have success with writing by way of the hand, one must be able to build words in the mind. This is the intellectual component of writing. It refers to the ability to put letters together to create a word. It can be done even if one has no muscular control of the hands. As such, this intellectual component of writing may develop even before the hand is able to hold a pencil  (see our founder's  graduate research at Harvard  for evidence to prove it)!

• Self confidence
• An organized mind (so he can express himself logically)
• Knowledge of words to form complete sentences
• Phonemic Awareness
• Knowledge of sounds
• The ability to recognize sounds in words
• The ability to recognize the symbols that correspond to different sounds/associating the sounds  with symbols
• The ability to link letters together to make words
• The desire to write

THE DESIRE TO WRITE

Even once the child understands the sounds and symbols of his language, he will not progress towards language mastery unless he is internally motivated to do so. The child must have a desire to write. We can require him to complete worksheets or write assigned words, but these requirements are more likely to deter his long term success rather than promote it. Instead, we must find the aspect of language that calls to each individual child. We must discover what intrigues them and let them know that they can explore that intrigue by writing about it. In short, we need to know the heart and soul of our students.

We must set aside time everyday to sit still and watch. We must allow the class to unfold. We must allow the children to be free from interference (unless there is a safety concern). We must record what the children do, for how long, with what attitude. What do they say? How do they move? What interests them? What do they repeat? In the process of these observations, we will naturally become aware of each child’s present knowledge, abilities, and interests. This is the scientific form of “assessment” conducted in Montessori classrooms.

There are no written exams given to the young children. We do not quiz them or ask them to perform on command. Instead, we teach them what we can, tirelessly and joyfully give lessons on how to use the materials in the classroom, notice the magic in the world, and we watch. And when we watch, we come to learn that the children are perfect as they are. That it is the environment, including ourselves, that requires fine tuning and that once it is adjusted, the children will flourish. When these intellectual requirements of writing are met, the children will be very interested in using tools like the movable alphabet to put into concrete form the words that come from their lips. They may come to you in the morning and want to excitedly tell you about their new shoes and you, of course, are very interested in hearing this. But knowing that this child needs motive to use the movable alphabet, you politely tell her, "I would love to hear more about your shoes but I'm so busy at the moment. May be you could write me a note with the movable alphabet. Come and get me when it/s ready for me to read."

Step 4: Reading

At some point, when the child’s needs for verbal language, for phonetic awareness, and for writing have been met, there is a magical event. The child reads his first word. Just as we can not make an infant take his first steps, this discovery is not something we as adults can make happen. It will occur on its own time table and for reasons that will remain mysterious. We can only prepare the child to make the discovery in all the ways we have discussed. Once this preparation is complete, we continue to find exciting ways to engage them in the language work while we wait. And while we wait, we trust that, s/he will spontaneously begin to read. This can happen as young as age 3 or as late as age 8. For most children who have been prepared as outlined in here, reading begins between the ages of 4 and 6.

At the same time, we introduce them to high frequency "puzzle words." These are sight words that don't follow the rules and must be memorized (words like you, as, were, though).

We follow the pace of the child as we slowly branch out to non-phonetic words and then first-reader books. All the while we find ways to encourage and inspire the child to write, to practice using the growing dictionary of words they can read.

As they begin to read more and more, they begin to notice that English has some completely unpredictable parts to it! We help them organize what is predictable by focusing in on key phonograms. We can do this with phonogram lists

Step 5: Reading for Meaning (Reading Comprehension)

As the child gains confidence with individual words, we slowly branch out to phrases. We use short phrases to isolate each part of speech and present it in a clear, repeatable, interesting lesson. Of course we don't need to present a specific lesson on nouns as most of the child's reading work thus far is dealing exclusively with nouns. We move on to the article, then the adjective, the conjunction, the preposition, the verb, and the adverb.

All of these lessons use phrases to ease the child into the more complex aspects of reading analysis. From here, we move into commands (more complex phrases) and then directly into sentence analysis.

From here there really is no limit. We keep going deeper and deeper, slowly adding in more complexity as we follows the child's interest. If they get excited about antonyms, we give them an antonyms activity.

If they find a contraction in something they are reading, we give them the contractions word study activity. We play a spoken language game about compound words to spark their interest in those and follow-up with compound word cards and alphabet work.

And when they are ready for reading books, we give them books that follow-up on early work we've done with vocabulary cards, read aloud books, and 3-part cards to introduce the definiton cards. 

Do you see what is at the core of the work we do for language? We are always carefully observing the child to find what interests them. Then we match that interest with purposeful work. 

All of this work we are doing with children as young as age 5...and we are not requiring it or assigning it. It is work that is freely chosen by the children because the work is specifically designed to call to them. It is terribly interesting! When we have lain the proper foundation, children become free to hear the voice inside them that calls out for knowledge. If our learning environments are prepared, the children can immediately and directly heed this call before it fades into a whisper. Our intention with all of this work is to help children become masters of the spoken and written word, to realize what Dr. Montessori called Total Reading. We want children not only to be able to read and understand the words of others, but to realize their own voice, to trust in it, and to measure everything else against it. This is a much loftier goal than teaching a child to work with the mechanics of letters and phrases. This is work of developing the child's full potential...and of realizing our own along the way.

Materials & Resources

Before presenting any material to the child, be sure to practice your presentation alone or with a friend many times,... you want your presentation to be flawless, precise, consistent/repeatable, and completely free from distractions so that the child can focus on, connect with, and learn from the materials.  Each lesson is like a choreographed dance that you memorize the movements for. Your performance of the movements must be precise but your interactions with an individual child will of course vary somewhat as you adapt to meet the needs of the moment. This flexibility amidst precision is the true art of guiding children. 

• Our post on what you need for the language area
• Language Material Organization, Scope & Sequence
• Our blog post on Setting up the Language Area
• Our blog post on Rotating Materials: Themes, Seasons, and Magic  

STEPS 1 & 2: SPOKEN LANGUAGE & PHONEMIC AWARENESS (including Letter-Sound Knowledge)

• Vocabulary cards
• Matching cards
• Geography folders
• Sandpaper letters
• Blog posts/additional resources
• Montessori Sound Games/Teaching Phonemic Awareness
• Natural Conversations
• Word Webs & Reading Circuits/Going Deep with Spoken Language Lessons
• The Motherload of Spoken Language Lessons
• Spoken Language Montessori Lessons
• Phonetic ABCs
• This  MP3  file sings the alphabet song using the sounds each letter makes instead of their names. Sing it this way with your children! You can also use this as a reference to understand which sounds are meant when people say "phonetic."  
• Vocabulary cards in Bhutan: Notice how carefully this child handles these vocabulary cards (I think the others in the room have been good role models) and how he takes time to get a closer look as he puts them away. (Thank you to Susan Stephenson for this video!)

Step 3: Writing

• Traditional Movable Alphabet
• Phonogram Movable Alphabet
• Red/Blue/Black (Phonogram) movable alphabets
• Metal Insets
• Chalkboards
• Independence with the Movable Alphabet
• Video of a child writing with the alphabets: This child has already had experience using the movable alphabet. This is his first time focusing on a single phonogram in a word.
• Practical life: Maintaining chalkboards

STEP 4: READING

We begin with words that follow the rules: truly phonetic words. Then, we branch out into words that follow the rules including the key sound phonograms (the 15 other sounds in English that can not be written with one letter only). Next, we move to words that don't follow the rules at all...puzzle or sight words like 'the' and 'one'. Finally, we add in non-phonetic words that mix the rules. 

• Phonetic Object Box
• Phonetic Reading Cards
• Phonogram Reading Cards
• Puzzle words
• Phonetic word cards
• Phonetic activity cards
• 3-part reading cards (for reading classification)
• Phonogram lists
• Phonogram spelling folders

The video above is of this child's first function of words lesson. We always start with the article and we don't use any symbols for this first lesson. Symbols come next, when we introduce the adjective.

Once their reading mechanics are in place and they have a growing inner dictionary of words they can read, our goal is to keep giving them reason to keep reading! We want to deepen their curiosity about our language. We achieve this through more advanced/scientific 3-part cards, function of words, word study, and reading analysis work.

• 3-Part Zoology Cards
• 3-Part "Parts of" Cards
• Function of Words/Grammar cards
• Word Study Card s
• Word Study Spelling Charts
• Classified Definition Books
• Definition Cards (for reading classification)
• Simple sentences: First stage
• Simple sentences: Second stage
• Simple sentences with extensions, attribution, and appositions
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How is language taught in the montessori classroom.

A special mechanism exists for language. Not the possession of language itself, but the possession of this mechanism which enables men to make languages of their own, is what distinguishes the human species. Words, therefore, are a kind of fabrication which the child produces, thanks to the machinery which he finds at his disposal. – Maria Montessori (1967, P. 191)

Dr. Montessori wrote extensively about a child’s drive toward acquiring language, and the tools that are a part of normal human development that assist with that language acquisition. According to Dr. Montessori, this period of time in the human life where language is most easily acquired is in the first plane of development, or from shortly after birth through the age of six.  From the perinatal period, humans are keyed in to human speech, giving it more attention than other sounds in their environment.  Soon they are compelled toward attempts to reproduce the sounds they hear from the people around them.

Dr. Montessori wrote that we humans rarely learn another language as well as our mother tongue, and that this is so because it is typically the language that we are exposed to during the sensitive period for language acquisition (Montessori, 1967).  She elaborates that this learning of speech is not isolated to words, but also applies to sentence structure and grammar. 

Learning to communicate through speech is a huge step toward independence in children, because they are able to make their needs and desires known and are better able to respond to the requests of others, and so when children make great strides into speech, we often see a corresponding change in their frustration and acting out.

           In the Montessori Method, we teach the sound (phonemic) awareness and skills that help with writing as early as three and a half when children show readiness. During these pre-school years, children show a great deal of interest and motivation in the acquisition of these skills. Around three and a half years of age, children begin to be fascinated with letter and number symbols and are able to start distinguishing them from one another.  Often children of this age use writing tools to start trying to form letters.  From this time to around five years old, it is common for children to have a strong motivation toward writing and the fine and gross-motor work is particularly appealing to them.

Readiness for reading occurs slightly later than writing in most children because meaningful reading requires a great deal of interpretation and mastery of letter sounds as well as phonogram sounds and the myriad of exceptions to rules of the English language, whereas writing can occur as soon as a child is familiar with just a small number of letter sounds.  Children who are around four years of age begin to understand how sounds come together to make words, and around this age the child will begin to recognize sight words. 

            The Montessori philosophy and materials support this development of language knowledge and skills in a variety of ways. In the practical life area of the classroom, children are encouraged to develop their fine motor skills through grasping, pouring, spooning, and scrubbing, always from left to right, top to bottom, so that the child’s mind begins to develop this pattern naturally. 

In the Sensorial area of the classroom, one of the earliest materials children are given lessons with are the knobbed cylinders, and while this material aids in developing concepts of size, it also requires a pincer grasp to lift the cylinders from their block and replace them. Across the classroom there are many activities that build this pincer grasp, including botany and zoology puzzles, puzzle maps, and pin punching.  Sewing and art works also serve to build hand strength and fine motor skills necessary for learning to write.

            Additional pre-language materials in the Montessori environment serve to build broader language concepts, these include activities to build visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, and concept development.  Often language shelves have several visual discrimination activities for the youngest children such as matching identical objects, finding the object that is different, matching objects to pictures, and three-part cards, which add the more difficult task of matching labels.  Common auditory discrimination games played in the Montessori classroom include rhyming games, I-spy (isolating sounds in the name of an object), and games to practice blends. 

The environment also has materials to aid children in developing concepts, such as go-together objects, opposites, patterns, and sequencing pictures to gain awareness of the logical flow of a story.  Many of these materials consist of small objects and these small objects appeal to the child, who is in a sensitive period for just these sorts of small objects and finds working with them quite engaging.

While these pre-literacy works are commonly found on the shelves of the Montessori classroom, and serve to broaden a child’s exposure to language concepts, Dr. Montessori designed just three language materials. 

Each of these materials was designed to isolate different skills needed to begin writing and then reading.  She wrote that, “ Writing is a complex act which needs to be analysed. One part of it has reference to motor mechanisms and the other represents a real and proper effort of the intellect .” (Montessori, 1948, p. 203).  By this she meant that by learning the skills involved in writing separately, children are better able to acquire these skills easily. 

With this complexity in mind, Dr. Montessori developed an aid to writing called the metal insets, consisting of a set of shapes that can be traces from the inner edge or the outer. Initially the outer frame is set within a square holder, making it easier to keep the metal stencil frame still.  Once the child has mastered this supported frame, they learn to hold the outer frame with one hand and trace with the other.  The next step is to trace the outside edge. This is more difficult because the child must press down on a peg to hold the inside shape in place while maneuvering hands to trace around the entire shape.  Once the stencils are removed, the child has a piece of paper with the desired shape, and there is a progression of control exercises the child will complete that leads to ever greater pencil grip and control of movement.  This development of the hand control necessary for the writing process is known as the motororic component of writing, and is separate from knowledge of letter sounds and the creative process of writing.

Before a child can express their thoughts in writing, they need to make a connection between the letter sound and its shape.  The tool that Dr. Montessori designed for this process is a set of wooden cards each with one letter affixed to the front in a rough sandpaper material. As mentioned earlier, children who are in the sensitive period for language are also in the sensitive period for movement, and by creating a tracing surface of a textured material, children can store the shape not just visually, but through their sense of touch as well.  This tactile storage of the letter shape as it relates to the sound is accomplished using muscle memory, and it is not uncommon for children who struggle to visually recall a shape to be able to recall once they’ve traced the sandpaper.  With the sandpaper letters children play games to learn the sound (phoneme) that connects to each letter shape (grapheme).  Consonants and vowels are different colors in the sandpaper letter alphabet to aid children in distinguishing important vowel sounds.

Once a child has acquired a small number of sounds, they may be ready to embark on the creative process of writing. The last Montessori-designed material in the language environment is the Movable Alphabet.  This ingenious tool allows children who are not yet able to write with pencil efficiently to express their ideas.  By separating the motororic component from the creative writing process, many children can get great joy out of writing.  Inventive spelling is common when learning to write, and children are better able to express themselves when not limited to words with which they are already familiar.  Correct spelling comes later.  Often small objects are used in conjunction with the movable alphabet to give the child an appropriate motivation for early writing. 

Dr. Montessori wrote about how the skills for writing can come together quite spontaneously when a child has access to the movable alphabet, “ It is after these exercises with the movable alphabet that the child is able to write entire words. This phenomenon generally occurs unexpectedly, and then a child who has never yet traced a stroke or a letter on paper writes several words in succession. From that moment he continues to write, always gradually perfecting himself. This spontaneous writing takes on the characteristics of a natural phenomenon, and the child who has begun to write the “first word” will continue to write in the same way as he spoke after pronouncing the first word, and as he walked after having taken the first step.” (Montessori, 1965, p.97). While this isn’t the case for all children’s language development, children who are learning to write for the first time typically experience a new-found autonomy and sense of self-efficacy that carries them into more and more challenging tasks throughout the classroom.

            Once a child can write some using either the movable alphabet, or chalk and chalkboard (a common first foray into motororic writing), or pencil and paper, that child may or may not be able to read as well. Some children can blend sounds efficiently and make interpretations from their own concept of sounds that make up a word to the actual spelling, and then make meaning of a series of words strung together, but most need intermediate steps to get there.  For children who are successful in writing simple phonetically regular words, they may also have success reading simple books with short sentences and the words they already know how to write.  Many of these simple books are available for beginning readers.

            The English language is quite complex, and in order to aid children in achieving fluency with reading and writing there are further skills that we can support them in obtaining.  Sometimes children have trouble isolating consonant sounds and so we include materials to give them exposure to listening for consonant blends. Also, our language has very common sounds (phonograms) such as ch, th, and sh, that are not phonetically regular.  Once children learn to recognize these letter combinations in words, their writing and reading can expand significantly.  Other phonograms include, but are not limited to oo, ay, ar, ie, and ou.  Another common rule in English that can help emergent readers/writers is the silent e rule, as in rate, kite, rode, and pure.  Learning simple rules helps children to become more fluent.  The movable alphabet is regularly used to play games with children to give them exposure to these language concepts.

            Basic grammar and punctuation concepts are interwoven throughout the Montessori language curriculum as well.  Grammar appeals to their sense of order, and order is one of the many sensitive periods children experience during their time in the primary classroom environment.  Children are exposed to concepts such as nouns and verbs in oral language games, and can start classifying these words as soon as they have enough sounds to write or read short words. In the Montessori classroom, the grammar solids and the farm table is a fun tool used to introduce a multitude of grammar concepts, including labeling and parts of speech.  With the grammar solids and later the grammar object shapes, the child associates each part of speech with a given shape and begins to see how sentences are put together in our language. Many children take great joy in applying their knowledge of grammar concepts, and in turn this understanding of grammar expands their overall literacy skills.   

A great deal of care is taken in the Montessori environment to provide children with developmentally appropriate and fun language materials that appeal to the stages of their development and their sensitive periods, and it is because of this carefully prepared language environment that children tend to thrive in their early language and literacy development in the Children’s House.

Works Cited

Montessori, M. (1948).  The Discovery of the Child , 6th ed. Ballantine Books.

Montessori, M. (1965).  Dr. Montessori’s own handbook . New York: Schocken Books.

Montessori, M. (1967).  The absorbent mind . New York: Deli Publishing.

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Montessori Basics: The Language Curriculum

Have you ever wondered how Montessori guides teach children about language? Parents are often astounded when they observe children learning to read at a young age in our schools. What’s the secret?

There’s no secret. We’re happy to share our methods! Read on to learn more about our approach, how we align our teaching with a child’s natural development, and what the progression looks like as children get older.

Early Language Activities

Children’s language development begins long before they enter the classroom. Dr. Montessori asserted that children from birth to age six are in the age of the absorbent mind. During this time, children are able to learn language simply by living around others who are using language. Montessori classrooms incorporate both spoken and written language into the environment to further enrich this early learning.

In our early childhood classrooms we teach children songs and poems so that they may hear and experience language in a fun and playful way that appeals to them. We encourage parents to do the same! Share poems from your childhood with your children and discover new ones together. Sing your favorite songs from when you were little, or enjoy kid-friendly tunes from musicians such as Raffi or Tom Chapin.

Montessori guides introduce children to as much vocabulary as possible in their early years. This may start with naming objects around the classroom, but will also expand toward specialized nomenclature. Children learn the names of the continents, plant and animal names, and specific terms that apply to areas of interest. These vocabulary words are spoken and shown in written form.

As you may have guessed, writing starts earlier in Montessori classrooms than in many other settings. Consider the goal of writing: to visually communicate one’s ideas with others using standardized symbols. This is actually separate from the ability to hold a pencil and form strings of letters, words, and sentences on a piece of paper.

Once a child has a basic understanding of most of the letter sounds, they begin to use a material called the moveable alphabet. Exactly what it sounds like, the moveable alphabet is a box containing sorted wooden letters. Children lay the letters out to write words, and eventually sentences. At this stage we do not expect children to conform to conventional spelling, but rather we allow what is often referred to as inventive spelling. “I love my mom” may look like “I luv mi mom”. 

Montessori classrooms use many materials to help children strengthen their finger muscles in preparation for the physical act of handwriting. We start this early work in our toddler and primary (age three to six) classrooms. Our experience has taught us that children are ready to express themselves in writing before they are ready to start writing in the traditional sense.  

One beautiful material that you have likely seen is called the sandpaper letters. The letters are used to provide a foundation in both reading and writing.

It’s important to note that when Montessori guides begin teaching children about letters, our focus is on the sounds the letters make and not so much their names. This means we do not teach the alphabet song, because knowing the names of letters isn’t really as helpful in learning how to read. That’s not to say there is no value in such learning; it will certainly come in handy when learning to alphabetize, or when talking about letters when they are a bit older. We just want parents to the value of using a letter’s most commonly used sound when referring to it. For example, when a Montessori child learns to spell cat, they will say, “k-ah-t” rather than “see-ay-tee”.

Much of our reading work is done while teaching children other subjects. For example, if they are learning about mammals, they will read lots of text at their level about mammals.

There are also special series of books, including Miss Rhonda’s Readers (created by a Montessori guide) and Bob Books. Check with your child’s guide if you’re curious or would like some advice on what books to read at home.

Card materials are also used as children progress, allowing guides to help children isolate specific sounds and blends. One series of cards/lessons may focus on the various ways to make a long a sound. One set of cards displays words containing ai, another will contain ay, and yet another will teach children about words with the silent e.

This area of study includes a wide variety of skills and begins once a child has begun to read. Some of the earlier lessons are given during the final (kindergarten) year of primary, but many are given during the first two years of lower elementary. The guide will give children a lesson to teach the skill. In the days and weeks following, children practice the skill independently using special card materials. The skills include:

• Classification
• Alphabetizing
• Compound words

Grammar is taught early in what we call a spiraling curriculum; that is, we circle back on the same content as the children gets older, building on previous knowledge and giving more depth to their understanding. Parts of speech are taught in a very specific order, and each one has a corresponding symbol that children use in many activities. 

Beginning in the final year of primary, children typically learn about nouns, articles, and verbs, as well as their corresponding symbols. This helps them to understand the core parts of our sentences and gives them an introduction to grammar in a way that appeals to them.

Sometime during that final year in primary or the first year of lower elementary, children are introduced to grammar through what we call the function of words. Traditionally, a model of a farm, complete with animals, is used to guide children through the process. Again, they begin by learning that nouns are naming words, and they name each animal and feature of the farm. They then go on to learn the corresponding articles, followed by all other parts of speech, including adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. 

Once a child has learned the functions of words, they will move on to the Montessori grammar command cards. Knowing that children learn by doing, these cards give children specific directions to physically follow so that they may experience the words for themselves.

Another classic Montessori activity involves the use of colored wooden grammar boxes. Children use cards to recreate sentences, word by word, and sort the words by various parts of speech.

There are many extensions to grammar work that Montessori children enjoy. Some will write their own sentences and use colored pencils to label each word with its corresponding grammar symbol. Others enjoy using grammar strips: a material that shows a series of grammar symbols which students must use a guide to write a sentence with that particular pattern.  

Sentence Analysis

Going beyond grammar, elementary-aged children learn to analyze sentences. This begins simply with subjects, verbs, direct, and indirect objects. As children get older and have a better grasp on language, the work extends considerably.

Older elementary children learn about complex sentence structures. This includes structures like predicate adjectives and nominatives, attributive adjectives, various types of phrases and clauses, and much more.

For seasoned Montessori parents: Did you learn anything new from this article? New families: What do you find the most interesting, or what do you still have questions about? As always, we believe in the power of observation, and we invite you all to schedule a time to sit and observe in one of our classrooms.

A Subtle Art: The Beauty of the Montessori Three-Period Lesson

Setting up a Montessori-Based Space at Home

Let’s Go Outside: Benefits for Our Children (and Ourselves!)

Our Montessori Bookshelf: The Power of Plants

Why Do Our Children Do What They Do?

Six Steps to Problem Solving

© 2021 The Montessori School of the Berkshires

PO Box 422, 21 Patterson Road, Lenox Dale, MA 01242

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• Review Article
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• Published: 27 October 2017

Montessori education: a review of the evidence base

• Chloë Marshall 1  

npj Science of Learning volume  2 , Article number:  11 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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The Montessori educational method has existed for over 100 years, but evaluations of its effectiveness are scarce. This review paper has three aims, namely to (1) identify some key elements of the method, (2) review existing evaluations of Montessori education, and (3) review studies that do not explicitly evaluate Montessori education but which evaluate the key elements identified in (1). The goal of the paper is therefore to provide a review of the evidence base for Montessori education, with the dual aspirations of stimulating future research and helping teachers to better understand whether and why Montessori education might be effective.

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Introduction.

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was by any measure an extraordinary individual. She initially resisted going into teaching—one of the few professions available to women in the late 19th century—and instead became one of the very first women to qualify as a medical doctor in Italy. As a doctor she specialised in psychiatry and paediatrics. While working with children with intellectual disabilities she gained the important insight that in order to learn, they required not medical treatment but rather an appropriate pedagogy. In 1900, she was given the opportunity to begin developing her pedagogy when she was appointed director of an Orthophrenic school for developmentally disabled children in Rome. When her pupils did as well in their exams as typically developing pupils and praise was lavished upon her for this achievement, she did not lap up that praise; rather, she wondered what it was about the education system in Italy that was failing children without disabilities. What was holding them back and preventing them from reaching their potential? In 1907 she had the opportunity to start working with non-disabled children in a housing project located in a slum district of Rome. There, she set up her first 'Casa dei Bambini' ('children’s house') for 3–7-year olds. She continued to develop her distinctive pedagogy based on a scientific approach of experimentation and observation. On the basis of this work, she argued that children pass through sensitive periods for learning and several stages of development, and that children’s self-construction can be fostered through engaging with self-directed activities in a specially prepared environment. There was international interest in this new way of teaching, and there are now thousands of Montessori schools (predominantly for children aged 3–6 and 6–12) throughout the world. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4

Central to Montessori’s method of education is the dynamic triad of child, teacher and environment. One of the teacher’s roles is to guide the child through what Montessori termed the 'prepared environment, i.e., a classroom and a way of learning that are designed to support the child’s intellectual, physical, emotional and social development through active exploration, choice and independent learning. One way of making sense of the Montessori method for the purposes of this review is to consider two of its important aspects: the learning materials, and the way in which the teacher and the design of the prepared environment promote children’s self-directed engagement with those materials. With respect to the learning materials, Montessori developed a set of manipulable objects designed to support children’s learning of sensorial concepts such as dimension, colour, shape and texture, and academic concepts of mathematics, literacy, science, geography and history. With respect to engagement, children learn by engaging hands-on with the materials most often individually, but also in pairs or small groups, during a 3-h 'work cycle' in which they are guided by the teacher to choose their own activities. They are given the freedom to choose what they work on, where they work, with whom they work, and for how long they work on any particular activity, all within the limits of the class rules. No competition is set up between children, and there is no system of extrinsic rewards or punishments. These two aspects—the learning materials themselves, and the nature of the learning—make Montessori classrooms look strikingly different to conventional classrooms.

It should be noted that for Montessori the goal of education is to allow the child’s optimal development (intellectual, physical, emotional and social) to unfold. 2 This is a very different goal to that of most education systems today, where the focus is on attainment in academic subjects such as literacy and mathematics. Thus when we ask the question, as this review paper does, whether children benefit more from a Montessori education than from a non-Montessori education, we need to bear in mind that the outcome measures used to capture effectiveness do not necessarily measure the things that Montessori deemed most important in education. Teachers and parents who choose the Montessori method may choose it for reasons that are not so amenable to evaluation.

Despite its existence for over 100 years, peer-reviewed evaluations of Montessori education are few and they suffer from a number of methodological limitations, as will be discussed in Section 3. This review has three aims, namely to (1) identify some key elements of the Montessori educational method, (2) review existing evaluations of Montessori education, and (3) review studies that do not explicitly evaluate Montessori education but which evaluate the key elements identified in (1). My goal is to provide a review of the scientific evidence base for Montessori education, with the dual aspirations of stimulating future research and helping teachers to better understand whether and why Montessori education might be effective.

Some key elements of the Montessori educational method

The goal of this section is to isolate some key elements of the Montessori method, in order to better understand why, if Montessori education is effective, this might be, and what elements of it might usefully be evaluated by researchers. These are important considerations because there is considerable variability in how the Montessori method is implemented in different schools, and the name, which is not copyrighted, is frequently used without full adherence. 5 , 6 Nevertheless, some elements of the method might still be beneficial, or could be successfully incorporated (or, indeed, are already incorporated) into schools that do not want to carry the name 'Montessori' or to adhere fully to its principles. Pinpointing more precisely what—if anything—about the Montessori method is effective will enable a better understanding of why it works. Furthermore, it has been argued that there might be dangers in adopting wholesale and uncritically an educational method that originated over 100 years ago, in a world that was different in many ways to today’s. 7 If the method is to be adopted piecemeal, which pieces should be adopted? As outlined previously, two important aspects of Montessori’s educational method are the learning materials, and the self-directed nature of children’s engagement with those materials. Some key elements of each of these aspects will now be considered in turn.

The learning materials

The first learning materials that the child is likely to encounter in the Montessori classroom are those that make up the practical life curriculum. These are activities that involve pouring different materials, using utensils such as scissors, tongs and tweezers, cleaning and polishing, preparing snacks, laying the table and washing dishes, arranging flowers, gardening, doing up and undoing clothes fastenings, and so on. Their aims, in addition to developing the child’s skills for independent living, are to build up the child’s gross and fine motor control and eye-hand co-ordination, to introduce them to the cycle of selecting, initiating, completing and tidying up an activity (of which more in the next section), and to introduce the rules for functioning in the social setting of the classroom.

As the child settles into the cycle of work and shows the ability to focus on self-selected activities, the teacher will introduce the sensorial materials. The key feature of the sensorial materials is that each isolates just one concept for the child to focus on. The pink tower, for example, consists of ten cubes which differ only in their dimensions, the smallest being 1 cm 3 , the largest 10 cm 3 . In building the tower the child’s attention is being focused solely on the regular decrease in volume of successive cubes. There are no additional cues—different colours for example, or numbers written onto the faces of the cube—which might help the child to sequence the cubes accurately. Another piece of sensorial material, the sound boxes, contains six pairs of closed cylinders that vary in sound from soft to loud when shaken, and the task for the child is to find the matching pairs. Again, there is only one cue that the child can use to do this task: sound. The aim of the sensorial materials is not to bombard the child’s senses with stimuli; on the contrary, they are tools designed for enabling the child to classify and put names to the stimuli that he will encounter on an everyday basis.

The sensorial materials, are, furthermore, designed as preparation for academic subjects. The long rods, which comprise ten red rods varying solely in length in 10 cm increments from 10 cm to 1 m, have an equivalent in the mathematics materials: the number rods, where the rods are divided into alternating 10 cm sections of red and blue so that they take on the numerical values 1–10. The touchboards, which consist of alternate strips of sandpaper and smooth paper for the child to feel, are preparation for the sandpaper globe in geography—a globe where the land masses are made of rough sandpaper but the oceans and seas are smooth. The touchboards are also preparation for the sandpaper letters in literacy and sandpaper numerals in mathematics, which the child learns to trace with his index and middle fingers.

Key elements of the literacy curriculum include the introduction of writing before reading, the breaking down of the constituent skills of writing (pencil control, letter formation, spelling) before the child actually writes words on paper, and the use of phonics for teaching sound-letter correspondences. Grammar—parts of speech, morphology, sentence structure—are taught systematically through teacher and child-made materials.

In the mathematics curriculum, quantities 0–10 and their symbols are introduced separately before being combined, and large quantities and symbols (tens, hundreds and thousands) and fractions are introduced soon after, all through concrete materials. Operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, the calculation of square roots) are again introduced using concrete materials, which the child can choose to stop using when he is able to succeed without that concrete support.

Principles running throughout the design of these learning materials are that the child learns through movement and gains a concrete foundation with the aim of preparing him for learning more abstract concepts. A further design principle is that each piece of learning material has a 'control of error' which alerts the child to any mistakes, thereby allowing self-correction with minimal teacher support.

Self-directed engagement with the materials

Important though the learning materials are, 8 they do not, in isolation, constitute the Montessori method because they need to be engaged with in a particular way. Montessori observed that the young child is capable of concentrating for long periods of time on activities that capture his spontaneous interest. 2 , 3 , 4 There are two features of the way that children engage with the learning materials that Montessori claimed promoted this concentration. The first is that there is a cycle of activity surrounding the use of each piece of material (termed the 'internal work cycle ' 9 ). If a child wishes to use the pink tower, for example, he will have to find a space on the floor large enough to unroll the mat that will delineate his work area, carry the ten cubes of the pink tower individually to the mat from where they are stored, then build the tower. Once he has built the tower he is free to repeat this activity as many times as he likes. Other children may come and watch, and if he wishes they can join in with him, but he will be able to continue on his own if he prefers and for as long as he likes. When he has had enough, he will dismantle the pink tower and reassemble it in its original location, ready for another child to use. This repeated and self-chosen engagement with the material, the lack of interruption, and the requirement to set up the material and put it away afterwards, are key elements aimed at developing the child’s concentration. 10

The second feature which aims to promote concentration is that these cycles of activity take place during a 3-h period of time (termed the 'external work cycle' 9 ). During those 3 h children are mostly free to select activities on their own and with others, and to find their own rhythm of activity, moving freely around the classroom as they do so. One might wonder what the role of the teacher is during this period. Although the children have a great deal of freedom in what they do, their freedom is not unlimited. The teacher’s role is to guide children who are finding it hard to select materials or who are disturbing others, to introduce new materials to children who are ready for a new challenge, and to conduct small-group lessons. Her decisions about what to teach are made on the basis of careful observations of the children. Although she might start the day with plans of what she will do during the work cycle, she will be led by her students and their needs, and there is no formal timetable. Hence the Montessori classroom is very different to the teacher-led conventional classroom with its highly structured day where short timeslots are devoted to each activity, the whole class is engaged in the same activities at the same time, and the teacher instructs at the front of the class.

In summary, there are two aspects of Montessori classrooms that are very different to conventional classrooms: the learning materials themselves, and the individual, self-directed nature of the learning under the teacher’s expert guidance. All the elements described here—the features of the learning materials themselves (e.g., each piece of material isolates just one concept, each contains a control of error that allows for self-correction, learning proceeds from concrete to abstract concepts) and the child-led manner of engagement with those materials (e.g., self-selection, repeated and active engagement, tidying up afterwards, freedom from interruption, lack of grades and extrinsic rewards) might potentially benefit development and learning over the teaching of the conventional classroom. We will return to many of the elements discussed here in the following two sections. (This has necessarily been only a brief survey of some of the most important elements of the Montessori method. Readers wanting to find out more are again directed to refs. 2 , 3 , 4 ).

Evaluations of Montessori education

There are few peer-reviewed evaluations of Montessori education, and the majority have been carried out in the USA. Some have evaluated children’s outcomes while those children were in Montessori settings, and others have evaluated Montessori-educated children after a period of subsequent conventional schooling. As a whole this body of research suffers from several methodological limitations. Firstly, few studies are longitudinal in design. Secondly, there are no good quality randomised control trials; most researchers have instead tried to match participants in Montessori and comparison groups on as many likely confounding variables as possible. Thirdly, if children in the Montessori group do score higher than those in the non-Montessori group on a particular outcome measure, then assuming that that effect can be attributed to being in a Montessori classroom, what exactly is it about Montessori education that has caused the effect? Montessori education is a complex package—how can the specific elements which might be causing the effect be isolated? At a very basic level—and drawing on two of the main aspects of Montessori education outlined above—is the effect due to the learning materials or to the self-directed way in which children engage with them (and can the two be separated)? Fourthly, there are presumably differences between Montessori schools (including the way in which the method is implemented) that might influence children’s outcomes, but studies rarely include more than one Montessori school, and sometimes not more than one Montessori class. Fifthly, and relatedly, there is the issue of 'treatment fidelity'—what counts as a Montessori classroom? Not all schools that call themselves 'Montessori' adhere strictly to Montessori principles, have trained Montessori teachers, or are accredited by a professional organisation. A sixth, and again related, point is that children’s experiences in Montessori education will vary in terms of the length of time they spend in Montessori education, and the age at which they attend. Finally, the numbers of children participating in studies are usually small and quite narrow in terms of their demographics, making generalisation of any results problematic. These methodological issues are not limited to evaluations of Montessori education, of course—they are relevant to much of educational research.

Of these, the lack of randomised control trials is particularly notable given the recognition of their importance in education. 11 , 12 Parents choose their child’s school for a host of different reasons, 13 and randomisation is important in the context of Montessori education because parents who choose a non-conventional school for their child might be different in relevant ways from parents who do not, for example in their views on child-rearing and aspirations for their child’s future. This means that if a study finds a benefit for Montessori education over conventional education this might reflect a parent effect rather than a school effect. Furthermore, randomisation also controls for socio-economic status (SES). Montessori schools are often fee-paying, which means that pupils are likely to come from higher SES families; children from higher SES families are likely to do better in a variety of educational contexts. 14 , 15 , 16 A recent report found that even public (i.e., non-fee-paying) Montessori schools in the USA are not representative of the racial and socioeconomic diversity of the neighbourhoods they serve. 17 However, random assignment of children to Montessori versus non-Montessori schools for the purposes of a randomised control trial would be very difficult to achieve because it would take away parental choice.

Arguably the most robust evaluation of the Montessori method to date is that by Lillard and Else-Quest. 18 They compared children in Montessori and non-Montessori education and from two age groups—5 and 12-year olds—on a range of cognitive, academic, social and behavioural measures. Careful thought was given to how to overcome the lack of random assignment to the Montessori and non-Montessori groups. The authors’ solution was to design their study around the school lottery that was already in place in that particular school district. All children had entered the Montessori school lottery; those who were accepted were assigned to the Montessori group, and those who were not accepted were assigned to the comparison (other education systems) group. Post-hoc comparisons showed similar income levels in both sets of families. Although group differences were not found for all outcome measures, where they were found they favoured the Montessori group. For 5-year olds, significant group differences were found for certain academic skills (namely letter-word identification, phonological decoding ability, and math skills), a measure of executive function (the card sort task), social skills (as measured by social reasoning and positive shared play) and theory of mind (as measured by a false-belief task). For 12-year olds, significant group differences were found on measures of story writing and social skills. Furthermore, in a questionnaire that asked about how they felt about school, responses of children in the Montessori group indicated that they felt a greater sense of community. The authors concluded that 'at least when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools'. 18

Their study has been criticised for using just one Montessori school, 19 but Lillard and Else-Quest’s response is that the school was faithful to Montessori principles, which suggests that the results might be generalisable to other such schools. 20 That fidelity might impact outcomes has long been of concern, 21 and was demonstrated empirically in a further, longitudinal, study, 6 that compared high fidelity Montessori classes (again, from just one school), 'supplemented' Montessori classes (which provided the Montessori materials plus conventional activities such as puzzles, games and worksheets), and conventional classrooms. Children in these classes were 3–6 years old, and they were tested at two time-points: towards the beginning and towards the end of the school year. Although the study lacked random assignment of children to groups, the groups were matched with respect to key parent variables such as parental education. As in Lillard and Else-Quest’s earlier study, 18 outcome measures tapped a range of social and academic skills related to school readiness (i.e., children’s preparedness to succeed in academic settings). There were two research questions: firstly, do preschool children’s school readiness skills change during the academic year as a function of school type, and secondly, within Montessori schools, does the percentage of children using Montessori materials in a classroom predict children’s school readiness skills at the end of the academic year? Overall, the answer to both questions was “yes”. Children in the high-fidelity Montessori school, as compared with children in the other two types of school, showed significantly greater gains on measures of executive function, reading, math, vocabulary, and social problem-solving. Furthermore, the degree to which children were engaged with Montessori materials significantly predicted gains in executive function, reading and vocabulary. In other words, treatment fidelity mattered: children gained fewer benefits from being in a Montessori school when they were engaged in non-Montessori activities.

This study does not demonstrate definitively that the Montessori materials drove the effect: there might have been other differences between the high and lower fidelity classrooms—such as the teachers’ interactions with their pupils—that were responsible for the difference in child outcomes. 6 In a move to explore the role of the Montessori materials further, a more recent experimental study 22 removed supplementary materials, to leave just the Montessori materials, from two of the three classrooms in a Montessori school that served 3–6-year olds. Over a period of 4 months children in the classrooms from which supplementary materials were removed made significantly greater gains than children from the unchanged classroom on tests of letter-word identification and executive function, although not on measures of vocabulary, theory of mind, maths, or social problem-solving. The authors acknowledge weaknesses in the study design, including the small number of participants (just 52 across the three classrooms) and the short duration. Nevertheless, the study does provide a template for how future experimental manipulations of fidelity to the Montessori method could be carried out.

Fidelity is important because variation in how faithful Montessori schools are to the 'ideal' is likely to be an important factor in explaining why such mixed findings have been found in evaluations of the Montessori method. 6 For example, two early randomised control trials to evaluate Head Start in the USA did not find any immediate benefit of Montessori preschool programmes over other types of preschool programmes. 23 , 24 In both programmes, only 4-year olds were included, whereas the ideal in Montessori preschool programmes is for 3–6 year olds to be taught in the same class in order to foster child-to-child tutoring. 6 Furthermore, in one of the programmes 23 the ideal 3-h work cycle was reduced to just 30 min. 6 A more recent study of older children compared 8th grade Montessori and non-Montessori students matched for gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. 25 The study found lower scores for Montessori students for English/Language Arts and no difference for maths scores, but the participating Montessori school altered the “ideal” by issuing evaluative grades to pupils and introducing non-Montessori activities. 6

These same limitations then make it difficult to interpret studies that have found 'later' benefits for children who have been followed up after a subsequent period of conventional education. In one of the studies discussed earlier, 23 social and cognitive benefits did emerge for children who had previously attended Montessori preschools and then moved to conventional schools, but these benefits did not emerge until adolescence, while a follow-up study 26 found cognitive benefits in Montessori males only, again in adolescence. Although such 'sleeper effects' have been widely reported in evaluations of early years interventions, they may be artefacts of simple measurement error and random fluctuations. 27 Importantly, if the argument is that lack of fidelity to the Montessori method is responsible for studies not finding significant benefits of Montessori education at younger ages, it is not logical to then credit the Montessori method with any benefits that emerge in follow-up studies.

Some studies report positive outcomes for certain curricular areas but not others. One, for example, investigated scores on maths, science, English and social studies tests in the final years of compulsory education, several years after children had left their Montessori classrooms. 28 Compared to the non-Montessori group (who were matched for gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and high school attended), the Montessori group scored significantly higher on maths and science, but no differences were found for English and social studies. What might explain this differential effect? The authors suggested that the advantages for maths might be driven by the materials themselves, compared to how maths is taught in conventional classes. 28 Alternatively, or perhaps in addition, children in Montessori classrooms might spend more time engaged in maths and science activities compared to children in conventional classes, with the amount of time spent on English and social studies not differing. However, the authors were unable, within the design of their study, to provide details of exactly how much time children in the Montessori school had spent doing maths, science, English and social studies, in comparison to the time that children in conventional classes were spending on those subjects.

Just as knowing what is going on in the Montessori classroom is vital to being able to interpret the findings of evaluations, so is knowing what is going on in the comparison classrooms. One of the earliest evaluations of Montessori education in the USA 29 speculated that Montessori would have found much to appreciate in one of the non-Montessori comparison classes, including its 'freedom for the children (moving about; working alone); its planned environment (innovative methods with tape recorder playback of children’s conversations; live animals, etc.); its non-punitive character (an “incorrect” answer deserves help, not anger; original answers are reinforced, but other answers are pursued); and its emphasis on concentration (the children sustained activity without direct supervision for relatively long periods of time)'. In some evaluations, the differences between Montessori and conventional classrooms might not actually be so great, which might explain why benefits of being educated in a Montessori classroom are not found. And even if the Montessori approach to teaching a particular curriculum area is different to those used in conventional classrooms, there are likely to be different, equally-effective approaches to teaching the same concepts. This is a suggested explanation for the finding that although children in Montessori kindergartens had an advantage relative to their conventionally-educated peers for base-10 understanding in mathematics, they did not maintain this advantage when tested 2 years later. 30

While most evaluations are interested in traditional academic outcomes or factors related to academic success such as executive functions, a small number have investigated creativity. For example, an old study 31 compared just 14 four and five-year-old children who attended a Montessori nursery school with 14 four and five-year olds who attended a conventional nursery school (matched for a range of parental variables, including attitudes and parental control). In a non-verbal creativity task, involving picture construction, they were given a blank sheet of paper, a piece of red gummed paper in the shape of a curved jellybean, and a pencil. They were then asked to think of and draw a picture in which the red paper would form an integral part. Each child’s construction was rated for originality, elaboration, activity, and title adequacy, and these ratings were then combined into a 'creativity' score. The group of conventionally-schooled children scored almost twice as high as the Montessori group. A second task involved the child giving verbal descriptions of seven objects: a red rubber ball, a green wooden cube, a short length of rope, a steel mirror, a piece of rectangular clear plastic, a piece of chalk, and a short length of plastic tubing. Each description was scored as to whether it was functional (i.e., focused on the object’s use) or whether it was a description of the object’s physical characteristics (i.e., shape, colour, etc.). Like the non-verbal creativity task, this task differentiated the two groups: whereas the conventionally educated children gave more functional descriptions (e.g., for the cube: “you play with it”), the Montessori children gave more physical descriptions (e.g., “it’s square, it’s made of wood, and it’s green”). A third task, the Embedded Figure Test, involved the child first being presented with a stimulus figure and then locating a similar figure located in an embedding context. Both accuracy and speed were measured. While the two groups did not differ in the number of embedded figures accurately located, the Montessori group completed the task significantly more quickly. The fourth and final task required children to draw a picture of anything they wanted to. Drawings were coded for the presence or absence of geometric figures and people. The Montessori group produced more geometric figures, but fewer people, than the conventional group.

The authors were careful not to cast judgement on the performance differences between the two groups. 31 They wrote that 'The study does, however, support the notion that differing preschool educational environments yield different outcomes' and 'Montessori children responded to the emphasis in their programme upon the physical world and upon a definition of school as a place of work; the Nursery School children responded on their part to the social emphasis and the opportunity for spontaneous expression of feeling'. They did not, however, compare and contrast the particular features of the two educational settings that might have given rise to these differences.

Creativity has been studied more recently in France. 32 Seven to twelve-year olds were tested longitudinally on five tasks tapping different aspects of creativity. 'Divergent' thinking tasks required children to (1) think of unusual uses for a cardboard box, (2) come up with ideas for making a plain toy elephant more entertaining, and (3) make as many drawings as possible starting from pairs of parallel lines. 'Integrative' thinking tasks required children to (1) invent a story based on a title that was provided to them, and (2) invent a drawing incorporating six particular shapes. Their sample was bigger than that of the previous study, 31 comprising 40 pupils from a Montessori school and 119 from two conventional schools, and pupils were tested in two consecutive years (no information is provided about whether pupils from different schools were matched on any variable other than age). For both types of task and at both time-points the Montessori-educated children scored higher than the conventionally-educated children. Again, the authors made little attempt to pinpoint the precise differences between schools that might have caused such differences in performance.

None of the studies discussed so far has attempted to isolate individual elements of the Montessori method that might be accounting for any of the positive effects that they find. There are several studies, however, that have focused on the practical life materials. A quasi-experimental study 33 demonstrated that the practical life materials can be efficacious in non-Montessori classrooms. More than 50 different practical life exercises were introduced into eight conventional kindergarten classes, while five conventional kindergarten classes were not given these materials and acted as a comparison group. The outcome measure was a fine motor control task, the 'penny posting test', whereby the number of pennies that a child could pick up and post through a one-inch slot in a can in two 30 s trials was counted. At pre-test the treatment and comparison groups did not differ in the number of pennies posted, but at post-test 6 months later the treatment group achieved a higher score than the comparison group, indicating finer motor control. A nice feature of this study is that teachers reported children in both groups spending the same amount of time on tasks designed to support fine motor control development, suggesting that there was something specific to the design of the practical life materials that was more effective in this regard than the conventional kindergarten materials on offer. And because the preschools that had used the practical life activities had introduced no other elements of the Montessori method, the effect could be confidently attributed to the practical life materials themselves.

An extension of this study 34 investigated the potential benefits of the practical life materials for fine motor control by comparing 5-year olds in Montessori kindergarten programmes with 5-year olds in a conventional programme (reported to have similarities in teaching mission and pupil background characteristics) on the 'flag posting test'. In this task, the child was given a solid hardwood tray covered with clay in which there were 12 pinholes. There were also 12 paper flags mounted on pins, six to the right of the tray and six to the left, and the child’s task was to place the flags one at time in the holes. The child received three scores: one for the amount of time taken to finish the activity, one for the number of attempts it took the child to put each flag into the hole, and one for hand dominance (to receive a score of 1 (established dominance) the child had to consistently use the same hand to place all 12 flags, whereas mixed dominance received a score of 0). Children were pre-tested at the beginning of the school year and post-tested 8 months later. Despite the lack of random assignment to groups, the two groups did not differ on pre-test scores, but they did at post-test: at post-test the Montessori group were significantly faster and significantly more accurate at the task, and had more established hand dominance. However, no attempt was made to measure how frequently children in both groups engaged with materials and activities that were designed to support fine motor control development. Furthermore, the children in the Montessori classrooms were at the age where they should also have been using the sensorial materials, some of which (for example, the 'knobbed cylinders' and 'geometric cabinet') are manipulated by holding small knobs, and whose use could potentially enhance fine motor control. At that age children would also have been using the 'insets for design', materials from the early literacy curriculum designed to enhance pencil control. Therefore, although the results of this study are consistent with the practical life materials enhancing fine motor control, the study does not securely establish that they do.

A further study 35 introduced practical life exercises into conventional kindergarten classes, while control kindergarten classes were not given these materials. 15 min were set aside in the experimental schools’ timetable for using the practical life materials, and they were also available during free choice periods. This time the outcome measure at pre-test and post-test was not fine motor skill but attention. There were benefits to attention of being in the experimental group, but only for girls—boys showed no such benefits. The differential gender impact of the practical life materials on the development of attention is puzzling. Girls did not appear to engage with the materials more than boys during the time that was set aside for using them, but no measure was taken of whether girls chose them more frequently than boys during the free choice periods. Similarly, there were no measurements of the time that children in both the experimental and control groups spent engaged in other activities that might have enhanced fine motor control. Nor is it clear whether it was the fine motor practice directly or rather the opportunity to select interesting activities (the teachers in the experimental schools commented on how interesting the children found the practical life activities) that was responsible for the benefits to attention that were recorded for girls.

Finally, it has been found that young adolescents in Montessori middle schools show greater intrinsic motivation than their peers in conventional middle schools (matched for an impressive array of background variables, including ethnicity, parental education and employment, home resources, parental involvement in school, and number of siblings). 36 The authors did not establish exactly which elements of the Montessori method might be responsible for this finding, but they did speculate that the following might be relevant: “students were provided at least 2 h per day to exercise choice and self-regulation; none of the students received mandatory grades; student grouping was primarily based on shared interests, not standardised tests; and students collaborated often with other students”. The authors did not evaluate the Montessori and non-Montessori groups on any measures of academic outcomes, but given the links between academic success and motivation at all stages of education (they provide a useful review of this literature), this link would be worth investigating in Montessori schools.

This section has discussed studies that have evaluated the Montessori method directly. To date there have been very few methodologically robust evaluations. Many suffer from limitations that make it challenging to interpret their findings, whether those findings are favourable, neutral or unfavourable towards the Montessori method. However, while randomised control trials could (and should) be designed to evaluate individual elements of the Montessori method, it is difficult to see how the random assignment of pupils to schools could work in practice (hence the ingenuity of the study reported in ref. 18 ). Nor could trials be appropriately blinded—teachers, and perhaps parents and pupils too, would know whether they were in the Montessori arm of the trial. In other words, although random assignment and blinding might work for specific interventions, it is hard to see how they could work for an entire school curriculum. Furthermore, given the complexity of identifying what it is that works, why it works, and for whom it works best, additional information, for example from observations of what children and teachers are actually doing in the classroom, would be needed for interpreting the results.

Evaluations of key elements of Montessori education that are shared with other educational methods

This final section examines studies that have not evaluated the Montessori method directly, but have evaluated other educational methods and interventions that share elements of the Montessori method. They, together with our growing understanding of the science underpinning learning, can add to the evidence base for Montessori education. Given the vast amount of research and the limited space in which to consider it, priority is given to systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

One of the best-researched instructional techniques is the use of phonics for teaching children to read. Phonics is the explicit teaching of the letter-sound correspondences that allow the child to crack the alphabetic code. Montessori’s first schools were in Italy, and Italian orthography has relatively transparent one-to-one mappings between letters and sounds, making phonics a logical choice of method for teaching children the mechanics of reading and spelling. English orthography is, however, much less regular: the mappings between letters and sounds are many-to-many, and for this reason the use of phonics as a method of instruction has been challenged for English. 37 Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence of its effectiveness despite English’s irregularities. 38 , 39 , 40 At the same time, great strides have been made in elucidating the neural mechanisms that underlie early reading and reading impairments, and these too demonstrate the importance to successful reading of integrating sound and visual representations. 41

As always in education, the devil is in the detail. Importantly, phonics programmes have the greatest impact on reading accuracy when they are systematic. 39 , 40 By 'systematic' it is meant that letter-sound relationships are taught in an organised sequence, rather than being taught on an ad hoc as-and-when-needed basis. However, within systematic teaching of phonics there are two very different approaches: synthetic phonics and analytic phonics. Synthetic phonics starts from the parts and works up to the whole: children learn the sounds that correspond to letters or groups of letters and use this knowledge to sound out words from left to right. Analytic phonics starts from the whole and drills down to the parts: sound-letter relationships are inferred from sets of words which share a letter and sound, e.g., \(\underline{h}\) at , \(\underline{h}\) en , \(\underline{h}\) ill , \(\underline{h}\) orse . Few randomised control trials have pitted synthetic and analytic phonics against one another, and it is not clear that either has the advantage. 40

The Montessori approach to teaching phonics is certainly systematic. Many schools in the UK, for example, use word lists drawn from Morris’s 'Phonics 44'. 42 , 43 Furthermore, the Montessori approach to phonics is synthetic rather than analytic: children are taught the sound-letter code before using it to encode words (in spelling) and decode them (in reading). One of the criticisms of synthetic phonics is that it teaches letters and sounds removed from their meaningful language context, in a way that analytic phonics does not. 44 It has long been recognised that the goal of reading is comprehension. Reading for meaning requires both code-based skills and language skills such as vocabulary, morphology, syntax and inferencing skills, 45 and these two sets of skills are not rigidly separated, but rather interact at multiple levels. 46 Indeed, phonics instruction works best where it is integrated with text-level reading instruction. 39 , 40 The explicit teaching of phonics within a rich language context—both spoken and written—is central to the Montessori curriculum. No evaluations have yet pitted phonics teaching in the Montessori classroom versus phonics teaching in the conventional classroom, however, and so whether the former is differentially effective is not known.

Research into writing supports Montessori’s view that writing involves a multitude of component skills, including handwriting, spelling, vocabulary and sentence construction. 47 , 48 Proficiency in these skills predicts the quality of children’s written compositions. 49 , 50 In the Montessori classroom these skills are worked on independently before being brought together, but they can continue to be practised independently. A growing body of research from conventional and special education classrooms demonstrates that the specific teaching of the component skills of writing improves the quality of children’s written compositions. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54

With respect to teaching mathematics to young children, there are many recommendations that Montessori teachers would recognise in their own classrooms, such as teaching geometry, number and operations using a developmental progression, and using progress monitoring to ensure that mathematics instruction builds on what each child knows. 55 Some of the recommended activities, such as 'help children to recognise, name, and compare shapes, and then teach them to combine and separate shapes' 55 map exactly on to Montessori’s sensorial materials such as the geometric cabinet and the constructive triangles. Other activities such as 'encourage children to label collections with number words and numerals' 55 map onto Montessori’s early mathematics material such as the number rods, the spindle box and the cards and counters. The importance of conceptual knowledge as the foundation for children being able to understand fractions has been stressed. 56 The Montessori fraction circles—which provide a sensorial experience with the fractions from one whole to ten tenths—provide just such a foundation, as do practical life exercises such as preparing snacks (how should a banana be cut so that it can be shared between three children?) and folding napkins.

Finally in this section, it is worth returning to the sustained attention and self-regulation that have been argued to characterise children’s engagement with the learning materials in the Montessori classroom. 2 , 3 , 4 These are important parts of the complex cognitive construct of executive functions (EFs), which also include inhibition, working memory and planning. Put simply, EFs are the set of processes that allow us to control our thoughts and actions in order to engage in motivated, goal-directed behaviour. That EFs are critical for academic success is backed by a wealth of research evidence. 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 Given this key role, EFs have become the target for a number of individually-administered interventions, full curricula, and add-ons to classroom curricula, such as CogMed (Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ), Tools of the Mind, 62 PATHS (PATHS Training LLC, Seattle, WA), music, yoga and martial arts. A review study compared these, including Montessori education, and concluded that compared to interventions such as CogMed that solely target EFs, 'school curricula hold the greatest promise for accessibility to all and intervening early enough to get children on a positive trajectory from the start and affecting EFs most broadly'. 63

Conclusions

Montessori education has been in existence for over a hundred years. Such longevity could well be due, at least in part, to its adaptability. 6 However, by its very nature, of course, greater adaptability means lower fidelity. This paper has discussed evidence that children may benefit cognitively and socially from Montessori education that is faithful to its creator’s principles, but it is less clear that adapted forms—which usually result in children spending less time engaged with self-chosen learning materials—are as effective. Nevertheless, studies suggest that the practical life materials can be usefully introduced into non-Montessori classrooms to support the development of young children’s fine motor skills and attention, and there is ample evidence from the wider educational literature that certain elements of the Montessori method—such as teaching early literacy through a phonic approach embedded in a rich language context, and providing a sensorial foundation for mathematics education—are effective. It has not been possible in this paper to give an exhaustive discussion of all the elements of Montessori education that might be beneficial, for example the lack of extrinsic rewards, the reduced emphasis on academic testing and lack of competition between pupils, the 3-year age-banding that fosters cross-age tutoring, or the presence of a trained teacher in the early years classroom.

Where does this leave Montessori education more than 100 years after its birth, and more than 60 years after the death of its creator? As others have noted, Montessori was a scientist who truly valued the scientific method and would not have expected her educational method to remain static. 64 Yet Montessori teachers often feel fear or uncertainty about being able to apply Montessori’s theories in new and innovative ways while still adhering to her underlying philosophical principles. 65 Ultimately, only empirical research, undertaken by teachers and researchers working together, can be our guide, because the questions that need answering are empirical in nature. Neuroscientific research—using neuroimaging methods which were not available in Montessori’s day—might also play a guiding role. For example, Montessori was prescient in her views that adolescence was a special time in development where the individual required a specially-designed form of education to address their needs. 66 Recent neuroimaging evidence points to adolescence as indeed being an important period for neural development, particularly for areas involved in executive functions and social cognition. 67 , 68 Montessori did not fully develop her ideas for the education of 12–18-year olds during her lifetime, but it is an area where current Montessorians might be able to take over the reins. Although some Montessori schools take pupils up to the age of 18, they are few and far between, and to my knowledge there are no published evaluations of their effectiveness. Developing a Montessori education for this age group in conjunction with the best of our current knowledge of developmental cognitive neuroscience has the potential to make a very positive contribution.

Nor did Montessori consider using her method with the elderly. In the context of a rapidly aging population and increasing numbers of elderly adults with acquired cognitive impairments such as those that result from Alzheimer’s disease, 69 it is interesting to note that the Montessori method is now being adapted for use with dementia patients, with the aim of improving functioning in activities of daily living, such as feeding, and in cognition. There is strong evidence for a reduction in difficulties with eating, weak evidence for benefits on cognition, and mixed evidence for benefits on constructive engagement and positive affect. 70 However, the quality of studies varies across domains; those evaluating effects on cognition have been of rather poor quality so far, and they have not yet examined whether there might be long-term effects. Nevertheless, given the challenges to developing successful medication for patients with Alzheimer’s disease despite a detailed knowledge of changes in their neurobiology, it would be sensible to continue the search for successful behavioural interventions alongside that for medical interventions. 71 One method for delivering Montessori-based activities to the elderly is via inter-generational programmes, whereby older adults with dementia are supported in teaching Montessori-based lessons to preschool children. Benefits have been reported for the adults involved, 72 but whether the children also benefit in particular ways from such inter-generational teaching has not been evaluated. Nor is it known whether a Montessori education in childhood or Montessori-based activities experienced in later life can protect the executive control circuits of the brain, as has been proposed for bilingualism. 73 A lifespan approach to the evaluation of the Montessori method involving both behavioural and neuroimaging methods might be valuable.

In sum, there are many methodological challenges to carrying out good quality educational research, including good quality research on the Montessori method. Arguably the most obvious challenge to emerge from the literature reviewed here is the practical difficulty of randomly allocating pupils to Montessori and non-Montessori schools in order to compare outcomes. The majority of studies have relied instead on trying to match pupils and teachers in Montessori and non-Montessori schools on a number of different variables, with the concomitant danger that unidentified factors have contributed to any difference in outcomes. Even if randomisation is achievable, studies need to be conducted on a large enough scale to not only allow generalisations to be made beyond the particular schools studied, but to also allow investigation of which children the Montessori method suits best. On a more optimistic note, recent experimental studies—whereby features of existing Montessori classrooms are manipulated in some way, or features of the Montessori method are added to non-Montessori classrooms—hold promise for investigating the effectiveness of particular elements of the Montessori method. The evidence base can be strengthened yet further by drawing on research of educational interventions with which it shares certain elements, and by drawing on related research in the science of learning. National and regional education systems are beset by regular swings of the pendulum, for example towards and away from phonics, 74 and towards and away from children working individually. 75 This means that elements of the Montessori method will sometimes be in vogue and sometimes not. It is therefore particularly important that Montessori teachers understand the evidence base that supports, or does not support, their pedagogy.

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I dedicate this work to Sandra Nash Petrek (1939–2017), an inspiring Montessorian.

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Montessori Language Materials & Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Montessori Language: Your guide to the Montessori philosophy on language development and information on the language component of the Montessori Curriculum. Here you can Montessori language activities for all ages from babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, and recommended Montessori language materials to aid in children’s’ language development.

If you are familiar with Montessori, you will know that as parents and educators, we play an important role in preparing the environment to encourage a child’s natural language development.

Though the Montessori philosophy is about “following the child”, a fair bit of guidance is needed from parents and educators. See below for our list of Montessori materials for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Montessori Language: “The Sensitive Period”

The Montessori Curriculum is built around “sensitive periods”.   A time when children absorb information from their surroundings with little effort. During these periods their development will suddenly take a huge leap forward.

Maria Montessori believed that the initial six years of a child’s life are crucial for a child’s development. This explains why it’s so easy for young children to learn a second language . It’s much more difficult for older children and adults to learn a new language because they are no longer subconsciously absorbing the information.

The short length of this period means that early language learning is vital to give your child the very best start in life.

Montessori Language Curriculum

Below is an outline of the Montessori Language Curriculum :

Writing skills before Reading Skills with Montessori

The Montessori language curriculum teaches writing before reading.

If you are totally new to Montessori, this concept may be hard to understand. Mainstream education usually focuses on reading before or alongside developing writing skills.

The reason Montessori does this differently (and very successfully) is better understood when you know how Montessori children learn to write.

Children are shown single, lower case, letters at a time. The teacher sounds the letter out as they show the child. Then the child is encouraged to trace the shape of the letter with the fingers. The adult continues to sound out the letter for the child.

So what does this mean for the child?

They see the letter.

They hear the letter.

They feel the shape of the letter.

This multi sensorial approach is vital. Seeing and hearing the letter naturally leads to reading. Feeling and tracing the shape of the letters will become writing skills.

The Three Period Lesson in the Montessori Curriculum

So how exactly do we teach the Montessori language curriculum?

Different Montessori language lessons have different presentations by the adult. Most of these follow the same important format of the three period lesson.

Each part of the lesson focuses on a different level of the child’s understanding and it’s important not to skip steps and that you give lessons in the right order.

• Period one is the introduction of the item. Present the material to the child and say “This is the dog/car etc” Then always hand the item to the child to touch themselves and place on the table.
• Period two is recognition of the item. After presenting the item, naming it and handing it to the child a few times try saying “show me the cat/bus etc” If they point to the wrong one be sure not to correct them or say no. Instead say something like “you found the dog” and be sure to go back to the first period.
• Period three is recall. Once a child masters period two, move on to asking more direct questions “what is this one?”

One thing to remember is not to move onto the next step until you are sure the child is ready. This knocks confidence and they’ll second guess their answers.

Change the items when your child has mastered recalling it but be sure to leave a mix of new and already learned items. When you ask a child to recall something that you’re sure they know well it builds their confidence.

Montessori Language Materials

As children age and their skills develop you will need different educational materials to keep them interested. The Montessori language curriculum has different levels of Montessori materials. Here’s a quick breakdown of Montessori language materials for toddlers and preschooler.

• Pre-reading Montessori language materials encourage matching and categorising skills
• Pink materials introduce phonetic words of 2 to 3 letters with the easily readable consonant, vowel, consonant structure e.g cat, dog, car.
• Blue materials use longer phonetic words of 4 or more letters. They contain consonant blends e.g desk, gift.

Montessori Language: Babies – Birth to 1 year

How is language developing.

Language skills develop right from birth despite a babies inability to vocalise. They have a keen interest in language and noises all throughout their first year.

You may notice your baby watches you closely when you talk to them. At this stage they are trying to understand how your mouth moves in relation to the words. They will try to copy the movements your mouth makes, opening theirs too or sticking out their tongues. These are their very first attempts at trying to master language.

As they get older they start to make noises of their own and figure out how those noises fit together. You might even get a sudden explosive, almost shout when they try incredibly hard to get a sound out and be heard.

Montessori Language Activities and Materials

At this age there is no real need for fancy language materials, although reading and singing aloud to your child is a benefit at any age. During this time the most important “material” in their environment is the adult!

There are various of things you can do to encourage language development at this age, here are few great ideas.

• Make sure baby can see your mouth when you talk to them.
• Copy any noises your baby makes exactly (these are babies first conversations)
• Speak clearly and don’t use baby language or dumb down your conversation.
• Just keep talking!! Explain everything you’re doing and chat to them constantly “Let’s change your nappy now, ok lifting your legs up, time to get clean” etc. At first you might feel a little silly but eventually you’ll be chatting to them as you walk around the supermarket without a second thought.
• Singing and reading aloud to your baby are a great habit to get into as early as possible to help nurture a love of music and books later on.

Recommended books include:

• Black and White Board Book
• Art for Baby Board Book

Montessori Language: Toddlers – 1 to 2.5 Years  

How is language developing.

Montessori for toddlers: The toddler stage in language development is fascinating! First just 1 word, then another, then 2 more, then 10, then 20 and so on and so on. It’s like an avalanche of words that just seem to keep endlessly coming.

Some children may take longer than others and that’s ok. Don’t put pressure on them to talk if they’re not ready.

My daughter is 18 months and, although she vocalises, her words are still unclear. I know for sure that she understands which words she needs though as she will always point to the right thing when I give her words at random or ask her to go fetch things.

This is the start to enrichment of vocabulary stage where your child wants to know the words for everything around them.

Be sure to be patient and name everything they point to even if it gets repetitive.

Sensory development will help to drive language learning so be sure to give your child lots of opportunities to feel and touch everything you name.

Montessori Language Materials & Activities

Don’t just consider activities that help actually develop oral skills. Think about tasks that can help your toddler develop that crucial “pincer grip”. These fine motor skills are a vital part of learning to write which then leads to reading so don’t overlook these skills.

Books with large, clear pictures work great. With Montessori for toddlers, allow your little one to point and you name everything. Eventually move to the second period and if child shows readiness third period.

• Global Babies
• Edible Colors
• One Gorilla

Audio books are also great at this stage. Check out CHAMELEON READER which turns your own books into audio books using your own voice!

Bead stringing is great for developing fine motor skills. Transferring beads from one container to another with small tongs is helpful too. You can find a range of Montessori beads HERE.

Matching cards and figures activities is a great Montessori language activity. Begin with exact matches then move to slightly different i.e a model of a German Sheppard matching to a photo card of a Labrador. This teaches that both are “dog” even though they look slightly different. You can find these Montessori Activity cards HERE.

Montessori Language: 2.5 Years to 3.5 Years

How is language developing.

This is the stage where you may find your child is ready to learn some writing skills. Some toddlers want to do this early and others it take a little longer. Let your main focus still be enrichment of vocabulary but just be observant and follow the child’s lead.

You can also begin to introduce pink language materials if your child is ready. Just be sure to stick to these short 3 letter words with the format c-v-c. The English language is not straight forward and this is the best way to introduce sounds so your child can recognise them easily when they come to reading.

At this age your child will start to recognise the sounds and you may be able to start some simple categorising. For example they will start to understand car, cow and cat all have the same beginning sound. Try to put emphasis on the c as you say the words together to really drive this idea home.

Sound presentation games as described above using flash cards or small figures – animals, vehicles etc

Sandpaper letters are an extremely useful activity to do with this age. Be sure to let the child see the letter, trace it with their fingers and you say the sound so they are having a multi sensory experience! Find a range of sandpaper letters HERE .

Another great Montessori language activity is tracing letters in sand or drawing them on a chalkboard is a great thing for children to try. The fact that the “writing” they have done isn’t permanent and can be brushed away or wiped from the board is great. Children don’t need to worry if they make a mistake like they would when writing a letter with a crayon on paper which can’t be erased and redone so easily.

Recommended Books Include:

• What to do with an idea
• A butterfly is patient
• Look! Board Book

Montessori Language: 3.5 Years to 6 Years

How is language developing.

Montessori for preschoolers: Vocabulary enrichment continues as it has in previous years. Now your child will have a definite interest in language learning though. Much more of an emphasis can be placed on writing skills and then reading skills as your child develops.

Introduce phonetics and more complicated words once your child appears to be mastering the pink materials easily. It’s always a good idea to keep a few of the earlier materials around though as going back to these can boost confidence when they’re struggling with the more advanced.

Learning these more complicated sounds is much easier for a Montessori child. In a more mainstream setting children are just bombarded with words to memorise without first knowing the basics of the sounds.

A smooth transition from writing and spelling to reading simple words will naturally occur. Then the transition from reading those single words to full sentences can begin anywhere from age 4 to 6. As always there is no set age when your child has to reach these milestones though. Just be observant and you’ll see they are progressing at their own pace.

Montessori Language Activity Ideas and Materials

Moveable alphabets or magnetic letters have a huge range of uses from categorising sounds to spelling out simple words.

A phonetic object box is a great activity at this age. Sound the word out faster and faster until eventually saying it without the individual sounds

I actually love this magnetic calendar to get kids into a routine of helping you spell out the day of the week etc. It’s a wonderful but slightly different way of getting them developing their language without even realising it.

These spelling puzzles are not strictly Montessori “purist” materials but they are engaging and a great way to introduce a bit of variety into your language lessons without needing much guidance from you

Recommended books include: Nature’s Scetchbook The book with no pictures

The Best Way to Encourage Language Development following Montessori??

Engage with your child.

Get down on their level and have grown up conversations with them.

Include them in everything you do, but don’t do everything for them.

The hardest pill to swallow is that your child can do things without you. As loving parents, we want so much to jump in and help and we hate seeing our children struggle. As always, the most difficult thing in Montessori is teaching ourselves to trust our child and simply be there if they ask for help.

Though these Montessori language activities, and Montessori language materials are a great addition to your child’s language development, YOU are your child’s greatest language material throughout their early years.

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Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum Essay

The purpose of Language Arts is to develop language skills in learners for them to reach mastery. The emphasis is made on such major elements as writing, reading, listening, and speaking. The curriculum is also focused on the necessity to make learners love literature, use correct grammar, etc.

A lot of attention is paid to language in the framework of the Montessori curriculum. From the very preschool education, children learn sounds of the letters and then transfer to their names because in this way it is easier for them to write and read. In this way, they also start writing before reading, as it is considered to be a less complicated activity. In addition to that, children get to know that every word has its particular function and that it should be used following some pattern.

The preschool and elementary school classes according to the Montessori curriculum allow children to develop spontaneous writing. In this framework, teachers do not concentrate on mechanics. Their task is to ensure that the words are down on the page. Of course, the first attempts to write something in this way are often not that good. But inventive spelling improves with time.

Montessori believes that reading is decoding of the words people keep in mind. That is why she starts teaching it with matching exercises. Printed cards with short-vowel words on them need to correspond to appropriate images. Thus, children can get to know new words and their meaning. Soon, pictures are substituted by word labels and lists, etc. Similarly, the complexity of the selected world alters and reaches long vowel digraphs.

Finally, the audition is introduced while reading some literature in small groups. Additional work can also be included, such as classes devoted to abbreviations, punctuation, capitalization, sentence analysis, etc. Grammar is discussed apart from the parts of speech (NAMC, 2013).

Teachers of the Language Arts maintain several roles to ensure that one’s students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. They act as a controller who pays attention to learner’s answers and behaviors. They encourage students to participate in all activities and act as assistants who support them and help when necessary. Teachers are great sources of information related to the Language Arts area, which allows them to guide students. In addition to that, they often help learners who need to work with other resources. Thus, they guide them regarding the usage of the Internet or various books, focusing on specific topics and educational purposes. Teachers are constantly evaluating their students.

They assess learners’ performance and notice achieved progress as well as drawbacks that need to be improved. In the framework of this role, they also define how all Language Arts’ objectives are fulfilled. Of course, teachers organize the working environment and processes. They determine the way all activities are maintained. Teachers provide instructions, according to which students do particular tasks and focus on those elements of the Language Arts that are underlined. What is more, educators are in charge of creating a positive atmosphere in the class so that every student participates in all activities and has an equal opportunity to obtain and master new knowledge and skills. As tutors, they are also expected to consider the individual needs of their students. They guide them on how to maintain self-study as well. In addition to that, teachers of the Language Arts have a range of external duties, such as meetings with other educators and parents. Still, they are mainly focused on the learners’ capacity to use English ( What are the duties of a language arts teacher , 2016).

Children tend to have different needs in the classroom depending on their characteristics. However, when speaking about the issue in the framework of general education, it is significant to ensure that different types of perception are considered. Thus, materials selected by the teacher should both meet the objectives of the Language Arts and the needs of the learners.

Students with auditory learning styles should be involved in listening and speaking activities. It would be beneficial for them to listen to the text that is read by another person. The teacher can use a talking dictionary and an audio recording with the help of one’s laptop, tablet, etc. For students with visual learning style illustrations, videos, and any printed materials can be used. In this way, they have an opportunity to memorize information with their eyes and avoid a lack of understanding that could be faced if the information was just read to them. Those who have kinesthetic learning styles require special materials that can be touched. A teacher can resort to fingerspelling, use of response cards, or different model items (letters, toys, etc.) (Voltz, Sims, & Nelson, 2010). It is rather advantageous to use a game format because it is appropriate not only for kinesthetic students but also for the rest of the class, as children like to play. They can play board games that require communication, usage of images, and dices.

Reading and writing are often connected in the framework of learning activities. Still, writing is often seen as an objective of the class, while reading is perceived in different ways. It is discussed as a supportive activity and as a dominant force depending on the situation. The most effective is likely to be seen when writing and writing are tightly linked (Dartmouth, 2016).

The number of assigned readings is often rather extensive. For example, students are expected to read not chapters but the whole book, which is time-consuming. It would be better to limit their amount and allow the learners to have more time to focus on writing. Class discussions and writing assignments should focus not on the very content of the reading materials but specific issues and the construction of the argument. Teachers should provide the list of the course readings beforehand and discuss them with the students, identifying those elements that make them well-written so that the learners can not just obtain critical information but also follow the example. Similarly, students should receive some examples of poor writings.

For instance, due to the discussions in the classroom, learners have an opportunity to avoid them. It can be used to improve reading skills as well. To prevent students from being passive, teachers can encourage them to write in the margins. For example, they can make notes about the most interesting information or confusing questions. Learners can be encouraged to have a reading journal so that they can make notes and write down everything related to the course materials so that their understanding improves. In addition to that, they can write response papers to particular readings. In this way, their writing skills will become better, and a complete understanding will be achieved. In-class writing assignments can be used to guide class discussions. They are not time-consuming and can be based on readings.

In the framework of a Montessori classroom, listening activities are considered to be among the first ones. Children play silent games and listen to other people’s reading to differentiate words and phrases. Enormous attention is paid to the differences in tone and voice. Children are taught to perceive and understand the storyline as they listen to various texts. They work in groups and learn to listen to each speaker and to be attentive (grasp everything and not interrupt others). Dramas, songs, and poems allow them to practice pronunciation and intonation. Speaking is often mastered while expressing one’s ideas and beliefs (Mi Casa Montessori, 2013). Fun activities, such as the creation of some story sentence by sentence or a discussion of a favorite meal, encourage children to participate in oral communication.

In a Montessori classroom, children are taught how to write before reading. However, they develop their fine motor skill before practicing, as it ensures that their muscles can maintain the required actions. Thus, kids are occupied in such activities as polishing or dishwashing. Then they learn sounds in the way they are read and only with the course of time start relating them to corresponding letters. They can use colorful papers to construct words. At this stage, they focus on the ability to express themselves and do not pay attention to spelling or grammar. To enlarge children’s vocabulary, teachers teach them the words that refer to present experiences and natural things instead of some pictures and recordings. With the help of storytelling, the kids are encouraged to read (Kids Collective, 2015). As they can match letters and sounds, they use special books to master their visualization skills and improve reading.

The direct aims of the Language Arts activities and materials reflect the necessity to help children to master their listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. In addition to that, they develop their sense perception, training them to observe, compare, decide, etc. Indirect aims refer to emotional enrichment, for example. Students also have an opportunity to develop their social skills through communication with teachers and other children. Their physical development improves especially fine motor skills. Kids also become more independent and learn how to be objective.

Practical Life activities can be used to prepare children for handwriting, developing their motor skills. For example, washing plastic dishes, kids practice their ability to hold large objects in their hands and manipulate them at the same time. At this time, it is enough for them to learn how to control a thumb separately. In this way, children work with their hands more. They become more stable and can move smoothly. Passing to the activities with tweezers, children improve their skills and learn to be more accurate, as they need to work with smaller objects. The eyedropper allows children to learn how to hold a little object in their hands and direct it to the required destination, which is also rather small. In addition to that, it makes kids conduct some extra actions when holding a dropper. They need to squeeze it with their fingers for a drop to fall. As a result, their fine motor skills develop, and they start controlling their fingers better.

Sensorial materials are also rather useful in this framework. With the help of knobbed cylinders coordination of fingers improves greatly. Mainly, it is targeted at the development of thumb and two fingers that catch things. On the next level, teachers can resort to geometric cabinet insets (MIKACJJ, 2013). They assist in the development of tactile skills and improve children’s ability to differentiate various shapes as well as to reconstruct them. Kids need to remember the shape of an object and correspond it to the appropriate hall so that they perfectly match. Similarly, they need to write letters according to the example. Needless to say that motor skills are also involved in this activity. Sandpaper letters allow to development of a muscular memory of the shape of the letters. Children memorize letters and correspond them to their phonetic sounds. In addition to that, they can see how each letter is written and follow this pattern to improve handwriting.

In the framework of Language Arts, reading should be taught based on speaking and writing skills. Professionals believe that there are two main stages of reading. During the first one, kids learn the mechanics of reading. They learn symbols and sounds that correspond to each other and try to decode them. When putting them together, children find out some words that are already familiar to them. During the second stage, kids learn to read phrases so that they do not focus on each word separately. Here, they can already consider grammar and syntax ( Montessori primary guide , 2016). In my practicum classroom, similar stages of reading can be observed. However, the emphasis on already acquired writing skills is not that critical. While the Language Arts manual of the training program encourages us to avoid using images and pictures, they are present in the classroom. They tend to make children more interested in the task and willing to participate. Still, it should be admitted that they also distract attention from the main purpose of reading. In addition to that, pre-reading activities are not always properly maintained. But those that are to be maintained during and after reading are used. The test is processed in-depth, which ensures students’ understanding. They also review the information they have read and often discuss the content of the text.

Different pre-reading activities allow children to improve their skills. For example, they can match objects with corresponding beginning sounds. Such activity allows preparing a control of error (NAMC, 2007). When creating cards for matching, teachers should also create such cards so that objects and sounds on them are already matched. In this way, children have an opportunity to cope with this activity in the way they consider to be right, and then check whether they have done everything correctly, referring to the cards with answers on them. Control of effort can also be put into the reading materials. While working with cut-up sentences, teachers should prepare a list of sentences used for this exercise that is provided correctly with no changes. As a result, children will be able to gather words so that they create a sentence on their own and then check whether they have made mistakes or not with the help of this list.

According to the Montessori philosophy, children are ready to write when they can successfully cope with pre-writing activities, developed all required skills, and can color inside the lines properly. To reach this state, a child’s large muscles are to be developed. One should learn how to walk and talk. With time, fine motor skills should improve so that a kid can be able to hold and control little objects, such as a pencil that will be needed to write. Still, before a child tries to use it, one should develop eye-hand coordination and be able to follow moving objects. For example, one should cope with going after a ball or a pet. Further, the child’s hand should become stronger. One should be able to eat little pieces of food with his/her hands and grasp little objects. It is also critical to ensure that a child can catch things and hold the balance. The hand control can also be checked with puzzles. All in all, it is significant to ensure that the pencil-holding ability is achieved. Then it is possible to start working with writing and working supplies. Painting different objects and even walls can be beneficial. Finally, children can be encouraged to color geometric shapes inside the lines. If they cope with this task, they are likely to cope with wiring letters. Such development is usually observed between the ages 3-6, but it is more critical to pay attention to the child’s skills than one’s age (Jacobs, 2012).

Dartmouth. (2016). Integrating reading and writing . Web.

Kids Collective. (2015). Reading and writing with Montessori . [Web log comment]. Web.

Mi Casa Montessori. (2013). Language . Web.

NAMC. (2013). Language arts in the Montessori classroom . [Web log comment]. Web.

Voltz, D., Sims, M., & Nelson, B. (2010). Connecting teachers, students, and standards: Strategies for success in diverse and inclusive classrooms . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

What are the duties of a language arts teacher . (2016). Web.

Jacobs, J. (2012). How children learn to write . Web.

MIKACJJ. (2013). Metal insets for children writing . Web.

Montessori primary guide . (2016). Web.

NAMC. (2007). Montessori prepared environment . [Web log comment]. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, May 6). Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum. https://ivypanda.com/essays/language-arts-in-montessori-curriculum/

"Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum." IvyPanda , 6 May 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/language-arts-in-montessori-curriculum/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum'. 6 May.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum." May 6, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/language-arts-in-montessori-curriculum/.

1. IvyPanda . "Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum." May 6, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/language-arts-in-montessori-curriculum/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Language Arts in Montessori Curriculum." May 6, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/language-arts-in-montessori-curriculum/.

• Maria Montessori
• Montessori Education: Textbooks, Curriculum, Teachers
• Sensorial Rationale in Montessori System
• Maria Montessori's Philosophy and Practical Life
• Montessori's Concept of New Education
• Maria Montessori’s Theory of Learning
• An authentic Montessori program
• Montessori: An Approach to Early Education
• Montessori Students’ Performance Assessment
• Verbalizations With the Young Child, Montessori
• Literacy Environment for Young Learners
• Chapters 7-12 of "Science Stories" by Janice Koch
• Mental Mathematics: Assessing, Planning, Teaching
• Shared Reading as a Literacy Strategy
• Improving the Writing Performance of Young Writers

List of Montessori Language Activities and Materials by Age

In this article, you will learn about the materials and activities used in Montessori language arts. You will also learn at what age the Montessori language activities and materials are introduced.

What are Montessori language activities and materials?

List of montessori language activities and materials by age, oral montessori language activities, sound pouches, object matching, matching object and pictures, graphic symbol matching, nomenclature cards, 3 period vocabulary lessons, matching rhyming objects, preposition vocabulary, classifying picture cards, sequencing picture cards, writing materials, metal insets, sandpaper letters, large and small movable alphabets, pink material, command cards, blue material, green material, grammar symbols, parts of speech.

Montessori language materials and their corresponding activities are designed to give children a sensorial impression of how language works.

These materials and activities work from concrete to abstract and build upon skills a child has gained thus far through sensorial materials and Practical Life activities .

The order of introduction:

• oral language
• parts of speech

Characteristics of Montessori language materials:

• work from concrete to abstract
• involve the senses
• items are made for a child's hands
• each section of builds upon the previous one
• miniature items are utilized

Each of the Montessori language activities has a presentation and extension(s).

This list excludes some Montessori language materials that can vary from classroom to classroom.

Writing boards and language boards that have a built-in control of error are often used in classrooms and are introduced toward a child's second year of primary.

This list is great for Montessori homeschooling or if you are looking to supplement your preschool classroom's traditional curriculum.

• 2.5-3 years old
• These are drawstring pouches labeled by phonetic sound. Each pouch holds around 5 objects that begin with the letter sound on the pouch's label. (Tubs and boxes are used for middle and ending sounds.)

• This starter set of 38 Montessori language miniatures is a great…
• This collection provides a balance of beautiful objects with…
• Your child will love using these language Montessori miniatures!
• 3 years old
• I Spy is a Montessori language activity that helps children identify the initial sounds of words. Small objects are used in this activity.
• Object matching is presented with an object a child is familiar with. This activity helps develop visual discrimination and classification skills.

• In this activity, children match objects to corresponding picture cards. Visual discrimination and vocabulary are built through this matching activity.
• Letters from the Large or Small Moveable Alphabets can be used. This activity helps develop visual discrimination and build letter recognition.
• Nomenclature cards are used to learn vocabulary for specific concepts. Oral communication is also encouraged through this activity.
• Vocabulary is introduced and reinforced through naming, association, and recalling objects .

• Small objects are used in this activity. Matching rhyming objects helps a child's awareness of the sounds of words.
• 3.5 years old
• These activities help a child understand the concept of spatial relationships. The term “preposition” is not introduced to children with these activities, only the concept.
• 3-3.5 years old
• In this activity, a large picture card is presented and children match smaller picture cards that fit with the theme/category below it. This helps develop classification skills and builds vocabulary.
• An activity is presented to a child along with the corresponding picture cards. This introduces children to the concept of logical sequence.

• 3.5-6 years old
• These are 2 sets of metal frames, fitted with knobbed metal shapes. This material introduces a child to holding a pencil and making controlled marks.

• 10 metal insets with 2 stands.
• Insets are in blue color while frames are in pink color.
• The metal insets consist of five curved-line figures and five…
• 3.5-4 years old
• This is a set of smooth color-coded cards with sandpaper letters impressed on them. This help prepare children for writing and give them a sensorial representation of the graphic symbols.

• 26 lower and upper case sandpaper letters. The Sandpaper Letters…
• This is a tactile activity, the child guides their hand to trace…
• As an extension activity, when the child is ready, the letter…
• 4-4.5 years old
• Each set of movable alphabets has a box with compartments for each letter. With this material, children are able to build words in preparation for writing.

• ★Familiar with the spelling of letters to practice words, while…
• ★To unite these sounds by means of muscular and visual memory…
• ★MATERIAL : Our products material make by AA level beech wooden…

• ❤The movable letter box consists of 26 letters, each letter…
• ❤After training the children to learn the pronunciation of each…
• ❤Using natural wood materials, non-toxic, harmless and…

• 4.5-5 years old
• The Pink Materials focuses on CVC words and the presentations move in a sequence of concrete to abstract.
• Set of red action cards that introduce children to the concept of verbs. The color of the card signals to the child that they will be performing an action.
• 5-5.5 years old
• The Blue Materials focus on CCVC words that are phonetic. The activities move in a concrete to abstract sequence.

• Set of 16 sandpaper letter combinations on green wooden boards:…
• 5.5-6 years old
• The Green Material focuses on more challenging words and introduces children to the idea that there are sometimes different spellings for the same sounds.
• These are 3 dimensional painted wooden representations of the 9 parts of speech. This material provides children with a sensorial impression of how each part of speech functions.

• Features: Demonstrate the form of nine grammatical symbols to…
• Nine stereo grammars are placed on the wooden base. Nouns,…
• Since the product is made of wood, it is strictly forbidden to…

Montessori introduces 7 of the 9 parts of speech in the primary environment. The remaining parts of speech are introduced in the lower elementary classroom.

Here are the 7 parts of speech introduced in primary:

• conjunctions
• prepositions

The parts of speech are introduced with the same concepts in mind as the rest of the Montessori language activities and materials; sensorial impressions , concrete to abstract.

Impressionistic lessons are used when introducing the parts of speech, however.

The parts of speech are introduced in a fun way for children in Montessori; using a miniature environment. This is often a farm and miniature figurines.

Label cards are used with the Grammar Farm to give children a more concrete representation of the parts of speech than with traditional learning.

The Grammar Farm in Montessori classrooms is often made of sturdy wood, as many children use it over the course of years, however, parents who choose Montessori homeschooling often opt for the Schleich Barn , which is lower cost and good quality.

As you can see, learning language the Montessori way is hands-on and a lot of fun for young children.

What Montessori language activities does your child enjoy?

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Madeline sarria

Friday 28th of October 2022

I like to teach children of Montessori

Montessori Radmoor

The Development of Communication and Language in a Montessori community.

When was the first word spoken?  What do you think was the first spoken word?  Was it a noun or an interjection?  All children have the innate ability to develop a language.  What language they acquire is dependent upon the culture or the environment which surrounds them.  Through the children, language is passed on from generation to generation.

Dr. Montessori observed that children have a thirst for language and communication.  Communication allows the child to express her needs and ideas to others.  Through language we are able to cooperate, collaborate, receive knowledge and pass knowledge to others.

Children go through a series of stages to acquire language.  They begin with auditory discrimination and quickly move to speech and vocabulary development. Eventually, the children develop symbol and sound recognition which leads to reading.  Dr. Montessori observed a very special time during which children from as young as 3 months of age to age six have a special sensitivity for the development of language.

The development of vocabulary sets the stage for pre- reading and reading skills. Giving your toddler the names of real or concrete objects, reading books, talking with your toddler helps your child develop their vocabulary.

Vocabulary development continues in the primary community (ages 3-6 years) with activities that help the children develop understanding of their community.  The sandpaper letters, sound games and lessons in the practical life and sensorial area help prepare for reading.

The phonetic material allows the children to practice reading that is meaningful and fun.  They explore phonetic reading, phonograms, the grammar material, and word study.

Once they have the mental and physical preparation, children are introduced to the mechanics of writing and letter formation.  The mental preparation is through the understanding of the symbol or letters/sounds that make up words.  The physical preparation begins with the materials that help develop the pincer grip, hand and wrist strength when tracing shapes.  Eventually children work with a pencil and begin to perfect their control.

As the children’s imagination explodes in the elementary classroom, the materials are extensions of the primary classroom.  These fun activities help them develop stronger language skills in reading, writing and vocabulary so they can experience total reading – clearly understanding the author’s words.

The fourth great lesson, Communication with signs, stirs the imagination and gives meaning and importance to language.  This story explores how written and spoken language has developed.  The children enjoy exploring picture messages – Phoenician images, Greek and Roman writing.

The lessons of reading – phonetic reading, phonograms, grammar work and word study; lessons of writing – various writing opportunities from research to letter writing; the integration of language with other areas of study – how does language compliment other areas of study; and Literature – the books and literature available to children for research, reading and study, together make up the elementary language materials and lessons.

The child is in his or her sensitive period for language development from birth to age six.  The Montessori materials work with the child’s natural stages of development and assist them with their acquisition of language.

Image credit: Montessori for Everyone blog

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Dr. Montessori: Language & The Absorbent Mind

• Dr. Montessori: Language & The…

Introduction

Dr. Montessori observed that the child’s mind is like a sponge. But unlike a sponge which in time dries up, the child’s mind incorporates what it soaks up. She called this ‘The ‘Absorbent Mind’. The ‘Absorbent Mind’ of the child is soaking up his entire environment unselectively.

It takes in the child’s entire environment. In the first 6 years of a child’s life, his mind absorbs unconsciously specific things at specific times; she called these times ‘The ‘Sensitive Periods’.

However, the Absorbent Mind is limitless. She determined that the role of the educator is to strew around in the environment of the child useful items appropriate to each stage of his development.

The Absorbent Mind

Dr. Montessori said, “ The Absorbent Mind is indeed a marvellous gift to humanity.” (Montessori, 1997 p61)  

During her observation of a small child’s development, Dr. Montessori came to realize that the child absorbs his whole environment, without effort and unconsciously. Dr. Montessori said “The child creates his own ‘mental flesh’, using for this what he finds in the world about him. This we have called the ‘Absorbent Mind’. ” (Montessori, 1997 p66)

The Absorbent Mind is likened to a sponge, which actively seeks out and soaks up useful information from the child’s environment, and it is limitless. The Absorbent Mind constantly and continuously absorbs the whole of the child’s environment.  As he absorbs his environment into himself, he adapts it to himself. “The child seems to take in these things not with his mind but with his whole life.” (Standing, 1957 p110).

The mind of the child remains in this absorbent state from birth until 5-6 years. The whole of the child is being formed unselectively. By just living, and without any conscious effort, he absorbs every little detail from within his environment. The child is absorbing everything in the Montessori nursery and, by doing so, he is forming his whole self.  Dr. Montessori likened the absorbent mind to a camera, which she said “is similar to the absorbent mind. It works rapidly, taking in everything without effort and without will ”. (Standing, 1957 p110).

• This period of the Absorbent Mind can be split into two sub-stages.
• The first sub-stage runs from 0-3 years. It is the period when a child’s intelligence, his very mind, is being formed. Everything the child hears and sees is absorbed into his unconscious mind, where it remains hidden until the light of the next stage of development.
• The second sub-stage, from 30 months to 6 years, is when the child moves to develop consciously , doing things purposefully and with awareness. Dr. Montessori said “ through movement, which follows the path of pleasure and love’ ” (Standing, 1957 p.111)

The Sensitive Periods

Dr. Montessori said “ One of the most resplendent miracles of nature is the power which the new born have, despite their utter lack of experience, to orientate themselves within, and to protect themselves from, the external world. They are able to do this with the help of the partial instincts of their sensitive periods.”  (Montessori, 1936 p203)

Dr. Montessori also observed that there were a number of important periods of development within the first stages of a child’s life, during which he builds his ‘ mental flesh’ , and that these developments happened at specific times. These times, she called the “ Sensitive Periods ”. As soon as one Sensitive Period is fulfilled another Sensitive Period comes to light. The Sensitive Periods overlap. It is in these inner Sensitive Periods that a child has a wonderful window of opportunity in which to learn.

These Sensitive Periods will only have a finite duration; a child who misses this window of opportunity will not be able to reclaim them. The Absorbent Mind and the Sensitive Periods are collectively known as the Creative Sensibilities, which are constantly Driving a child forward. The Sensitive Periods are like a shining light, they Dr.aw the child to certain activities, which signal the arrival of the Sensitive Period.

Dr. Montessori realised that the child is forming his whole self, both mentally, spiritually and physically, through his Absorbent Mind, and using things within his environment to do so. During her observations, she realised the great importance of a well-prepared environment through which a child can then construct himself.  Dr. Montessori prepared within the ‘Children’s House’ a special environment ,“ (Standing, 1957 p265), She gave the child freedom to move around within this prepared environment, absorbing whatever he finds there.

The Sensitive Period for Language

The sensitive period for language begins from birth. Dr. Montessori said, “ The only outwardly recognizable sign of the onset of the sensitive period for language is the child’s smile ”. (Montessori, 1997 p169)

Language is the most difficult of a child’s achievements. Through the studies of Itard and the Wild Boy of Aveynon, we learn that there is a certain period of time in which to learn a language. There is a sensitive period for language from birth to 6 years old. If the concept of language has not been grasped during this window of opportunity the child will never be able to learn a language and hence be able to speak. Dr. Montessori said, “ It is useless to try to catch the sensitive period after it has passed. We have missed the bus – the last and only bus for that particular destination.” (Standing, 1957 p136). As each sensitive period becomes manifest, it is essential that the window of opportunity for learning is not missed.

From birth, through his environment, the child is constantly absorbing the sounds around him. The environment into which a child is born will determine his mother tongue. These at first will be confusing and disordered. The child’s mind is empty of any thought. He listens and fills his mind with sounds. It is during the sensitive period for language that the child’s inner drive helps the child to make sense of these noises.  His muscles in the mouth and tongue begin to move. As the child tries to make sense of these sounds, his muscles become ordered and he produces a range of sounds: he babbles. Children need language around them in order to develop their own idea of language.

During the early stages of a child’s life, a mother communicates with the child, not only verbally but through her body language and voice tone. These sounds of language are fixed in the child’s subconscious and become manifest later.  The mother’s body language and response to a child’s cries can affect the outcome of the progress a child makes during his sensitive time to language. Negative body language and attitude may cause the child to make slow progress in developing language.

From birth, the child makes himself heard through cries which can be recognised as ‘I am hungry’, or ‘wet’ or ‘cold’ or ‘tired’. The mother is able to distinguish the different cries. From 6 months the child who, up until now, has cried and babbled will begin to make sense of his babbles with words, such as ‘ba-ab’, ‘da-da’, ’ma–ma’.  

From the age of about two years old the child begins to create words, such as nouns. He is able to recognize and name things. As he develops further, and through the input of his parents, he indirectly, begins to use adjectives, conjunctions and adverbs, along with verbs. Through repetition, the child becomes his own teacher. Dr. Montessori referred to “ The, child as a living miracle ”.(Montessori, 1949 p103).

Dr. Montessori observed that, from the end of a child’s first year and as early as ten months, the child has realised that language has a purpose. She went on to state “ When we say ‘dear little boy, how sweet you are’, he realizes this is meant for him .” (Montessori, 1949 p103). The child is becoming aware rapidly of the process and meaning of language. By the end of his first year, the child is going from the unconscious learning of language to the conscious.

Dr. Montessori gave an example of this, “ After listening to adults talking about the merits and demerits of a child’s storybook, the conversation ended with, ‘it all had a happy ending’. Immediately the child in the room began to shout “Lola, Lola”. The adults took the end of the story as the final ending. But the small child having followed the conversation, cried out as the parents said the end to be ‘living happily ever after’. The little girl knew the book and had understood the picture on the back cover as the ending. Her speech was not sufficient so she used the name Lola as a means of saying ‘You are wrong it does not end happily. She cries’ .”  (Montessori, 1949 p106).

Language in The Classroom

Dr. Montessori realized the importance of a prepared environment and the relation to the child’s Absorbent Mind.  Within the Montessori classroom, there are four areas of learning related to language.

• 1- Listening.
• 2- Speaking.
• 4.-Reading.

Dr. Montessori devised her materials in relation to these learning areas.  She referred to “ The best age for a child to learn to write is from three and a half year old to four and half .” (Standing, 1957 p137).

The Practical Life activities in the classroom indirectly prepare the child for writing, amongst other daily activities. Pouring and transferring teach the child the pencil grip which indirectly introduces the concept of holding a pencil in preparation for later writing. They prepare the minor muscular movements which help to perfect writing later. Practical Life Preliminary Activities are introduced to every new child in the nursery. When the directress introduces the activity, the stimuli used will introduce to him a new language. A child who has begun to speak has also had a stage of unconsciously preparing himself to speak his first word. He has been doing this through his Absorbent Mind.

The child will refine his vocabulary by communicating within the nursery. Communication is the key to build the child’s intelligence. This leads to the perfection of speech. Practical Life exercises are taught with very little language. The directress speaks clearly and slowly. She will repeat the stimuli and when the child has become familiar with the object he is being shown, and he has associated the chosen object with the stimuli, he will be encouraged to repeat the words.  The directress demonstrates the activity in silence, all the while observing the child. “ The principles guiding the process by which by which we can best do this are to proceed from simple to complex, to use repetition, and to ‘teach’ in short intervals of five or ten minutes retains a child’s concentration ”. (Lillard & Jessen, 2003)

During the activity of ‘Transferring Pasta or Similar Into A Jug’, the child is using his visual and auditory senses. His intelligence, concentration, coordination and fine motor skills are being developed. He is refining the senses of feel and touch.  He is developing an awareness of small objects. The skills the child is developing will later become essential to his writing and further develop his language and auditory senses.

Freedom of expression is emphasized in the classroom. Children, who have not developed language to a satisfactory level by the age of three or four years old, suddenly, through freedom of activity and the well-prepared environment, begin to speak. Dr. Montessori said, “ Why does this happen? Because either a great shock or persistent opposition has impeded the child hitherto from giving forth the wealth of his language .” (Montessori, 1949 p109).

Difficulties and impediments can affect a child’s speech development.  The child’s development of language may be impeded by organic causes. His tongue is not formed correctly so he is unable to say words correctly. He may have a hearing impediment which will cause him not to hear sounds clearly and hinder the reproduction of the sound correctly. Defects such as stammering will inhibit a child’s speech development. Other instances such as abuse or negativity towards a child can inhibit his development of language. A child who does not interact with others and is kept alone may never grasp the sounds of language correctly.

Dr. Montessori’s exercises and methods are designed to correct spoken language. She said, “ But in my methods are to be found all exercises for the corrections of language”.   (Montessori, 1912 p213).

• The exercises in silence prepare the nervous channels of language to receive new stimuli perfectly.
• Lessons, which consist first of the distinct pronunciation by the teacher of few words, create clear and perfect auditory stimuli. The child repeats the words back to the teacher aloud, pronouncing their separate sounds.
• Graphic language analyses the sounds of speech and causes them to be repeated separately in several ways. For example, in the letters of the alphabet, the child learns the separate sounds and then continues on to create words and sentences. The Small Alphabetical box and the activities used in conjunction with the box assist in this learning.
• The Three Period Lessons refine the child’s understanding of pronunciation and understanding of words. They help him to develop recognition of letters and of words.

From the age of two and a half to three years old a child becomes interested in the Sensorial materials. Indirectly these activities relate to the development of his writing skills and further his language skills. The shapes of sandpaper letters and the feel of the sandpaper cultivate the child’s awareness of the shapes of letters. During this activity, touch is of foremost importance to the child’s learning. The learning of different sensorial shapes and the recognition of these shapes help to develop a child’s ability to write, and further develop his reading. A child is all the time finding ways of expressing his thoughts and refining his sensitive periods.

Dr. Montessori went on to say, “ Writing is a complex act which needs to be analyzed. One part of it has reference to motor mechanisms and the other represents a real and proper effort of the intellect .” (Montessori, 1948 p203).

Dr. Montessori devised materials such as the Metal Insets and Sandpaper Letters exercises amongst others. The metal insets assist the child to develop the skill and knowledge of Drawing lines and keeping them within the boundary frame of the metal insets. With a coloured pencil that he selects, he fills in the figure which he has outlined. These exercises indirectly lead the child to later formation of letters and figures. He learns to perfect the fine control of the pen. 

The cards upon which the single letters of the alphabet are mounted in sandpaper, and the larger cards with groups of the same letters, (vowels) help to develop the child’s reading and writing skills. They develop the child’s pronunciation of letters and sounds. The exercises of reading and writing start with the vowels and then introduce some consonants, creating a sound as we join these letters together. The child learns to associate the sounds of a letter with its shape, through touch and through the repetition of the sounds during or after the lesson. The Three Period Lesson reinforces the child’s knowledge of the sounds and shapes which form the letters.

Dr. Montessori witnessed the explosion into writing when a child from the Children’s House in San Lorenzo was handed a piece of chalk. He was asked to Dr.aw the chimney of the house on the pavement. After he had done so, Dr. Montessori praised him. In excitement the child said, “I write, I write.” He proceeded to write ‘ mano’ (hand) on the tiles. He then wrote ‘ camino’ (chimney) and the ‘ tetto’ (roof). He cried out, “I am writing, I know how to write”. This was the first time he had handled any writing instrument and the first time he had written. (Montessori, 1948 p221).

In the classroom the Directress encourages writing through painting, Drawing, and making nameplates for the child, which they usually copy. The Sand Tray assists the child to experiment with different shapes, reinforcing lines and curves. These shapes form the basis for the formation of letters and numbers.

Through the Pink, Blue and Green Series the child grasps the concept not only of word recognition but also of phrases and sentences. Initially, the child is introduced to the Large Alphabetical Box and Sandpaper Letters, alongside picture cards and words. The Pink Series introduces the child to phonic sounds and sight words. The Blue Series introduces the child to larger phonic words and consonant blends.

The Green Series introduces the digraph sounds. The Directress reinforces the sounds using the green reading list, Sentence Strips and Phrase Strips.

The Book Corner in the nursery is essential in refining the child’s ability to read and further his language skills of pronunciation and grammar. The Directress plays an important part when reading to the child. Her expressions and attitude to reading will make an impression on the child. Children copy, so negative attitudes and body language may hinder the progress of a child’s reading.

Reading should be fun and an enjoyable exercise. Storytime can be encouraged, an exercise which can be introduced is by the Directress starting the story with a sentence, and the child then continues the story with his own sentence. This can be a group activity where all the children continue the story with their own sentences. The activity develops the child’s creativity and use of language.

Dr. Montessori witnessed the child’s recognition of letters. After sorting out the box of alphabetical letters, a little boy of two years old came close to her and picked up the letter ‘r’. She went on to say, “ At that moment, the children who were running in single file, passed us and, seeing the letter, called out in chorus the corresponding sound and passed on. After doing this several times (in fact for three-quarters of an hour), the child held up the letter and repeated the sound, in the confusion of sounds he had heard. The letter had made an impression upon him .”  (Montessori, 1912 p187). Children learn through observation and repetition.

Dr. Montessori later went on to say, “ The lesson given by the teacher, which introduces the child to the material and its use, is absolutely essential, with the material being something like a key that unlocks a door .” (Montessori, 1997 p142).

The lessons in the classroom are primarily done in silence. This allows the child to control his thoughts and concentration. Dr. Montessori said, “ The sense of hearing also provides us with a clear concept of the basic principle for the training of the senses. This consists of the ability to hear well .”  Itard, used the principle that the senses of hearing can be trained, through using sounds that gradually diminished from strong to weak. This taught the deaf how to hear clearer and thus to determine the different sounds. He used this method successfully to cure a number of deaf people. (Montessori, 1948 p135).

In the sensorial area of the classroom, an example of the materials used to perfect and train the sense of hearing are: The Bells and The Sound Boxes. Both exercises are done in silence by the Directress. Both exercises contain varying grades of sound.

The Silence game helps the child in refining his sense of hearing. Dr. Montessori said, “We can therefore assist the development of the senses during this very period by graduating and adapting the stimuli to which a child is exposed just as we should assist him in learning how to speak before his speech is completely developed ”. (Montessori, 1948 p143). The age of three to six is of absolute importance. After the age of five years old these sensitive periods begin to decline and then are lost forever.

Mathematical exercises introduce the child to new vocabulary. He learns the concept of numbers and the vocabulary associate with each number. One example of such activities is ‘The Number Rods’, they further develop the child’s language and recognition and understanding of numbers.

The cultural activities introduce the child to a new language, for instance, the learning of such words as ‘land’, ‘water’ and ‘globe’. Different cultural activities introduce him to the various languages of the world. The Directress may introduce such words through cookery lessons or similar activities which relate to different cultures.

The Directress should ensure the environment is well prepared in order to give the child the best opportunity to learning Language. She should observe the child closely and introduce the appropriate materials to the child as he becomes ready for each stage.

Language is of paramount importance socially and as the basic structure of thought. It enables the child to integrate into society and to deal with abstract concepts. The Absorbent Mind is the child’s tool for learning the language. All the while, the child is experimenting with words he has heard within his environment. Dr. Montessori said, “ By merely living and without any conscious effort the individual abstracts from the environment even a complex cultural achievement like language ”. (Montessori, 1997 p61).

From birth, the child is absorbing his whole environment. He is absorbing the sounds of a language that are then fixed into his subconscious where they will become manifest.

In the Montessori classroom, Dr. Montessori referred to the period when the child begins to become conscious of using words as the ” second sensitive period for language”.   She said, “It is now the construction of language which fascinates the child, and his interest now becomes focused on the relationship between words .” (Standing, 1957 p138).

The Sensorial activities and the materials associated with the language section develop and refine the child’s spoken language, his written language, and his reading.  Repetition of the exercises and the Three Period Lesson reinforce the understanding that the child has of the concepts of speech, writing, and reading. Up to the age of three to four years old the child’s words have been flexible. They have not been clearly understood. They have been used singly, without structure. It is a sudden change when a child starts to make sense of his words and begins to make structured sentences.  From the age of four, the child will associate his speech with written language.

Because of the pivotal role of language in the development of thought and the facilitation of social relationships, feeding the Sensitive Period for Language is perhaps the most important job of the Directress. If a child misses the sensitive period, his window of opportunity – his chance for learning a language – will have been lost forever.

Lillard, Paula and Jessen, Lynn (2003) Montessori from the start , Schocken Books.

Montessori, Maria (1997) Basic Ideas of Montessori’s Educational Theory ,.

Montessori, Maria (1949) The Absorbent Mind , B N Publishing.

Montessori, Maria (1948) The Discovery of the Child , 6th ed. Ballantine Books.

Montessori, Maria (1912) The Montessori Method , B N Publishing.

Montessori, Maria (1936) The Secret of Childhood , Ballantine Books.

Standing, E M (1957) Maria Montessori: Her Life And Work , Plume.

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Enjoyed reading your research about childs early stage development, I found it very interesting and informative.

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The Importance of Language-Learning Environments to Child Language Outcomes

POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The author has indicated she has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Heidi M. Feldman; The Importance of Language-Learning Environments to Child Language Outcomes. Pediatrics October 2019; 144 (4): e20192157. 10.1542/peds.2019-2157

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A strong foundation in language skills is associated with positive, long-term academic, occupational, and social outcomes. Individual differences in the rate of language development appear early. Approximately 16% of children experience delays in initial phases of language learning; approximately half of those show persistent difficulties that may lead to clinical disorders. 1   Because of the high prevalence of language disorders and lifelong implications of early delays, prevention is of utmost importance. Primary prevention takes place before any problems are detected, preventing the condition from occurring. Secondary prevention takes place after early detection of a disorder, resulting in a mild rather than severe variant. Children learn language from their interactions with caregivers in their environment. An obvious direction for both primary and secondary prevention is improving language-learning environments.

In the study entitled “Parenting Behavior and Child Language: A Meta-analysis” by Madigan et al 2   in this issue of Pediatrics , the authors summarize evidence about “2 primary types of parenting” in relation to child language outcomes. Sensitive responsiveness refers to a parent’s ability to perceive, interpret, and respond quickly and appropriately to the children’s signals. The authors assume that sensitive responsiveness implies contingent responding to foster coordinated communicative exchanges. Warmth refers to caregiver physical affection or positive affect with the child. In the meta-analysis, it was found that sensitive responsiveness and warmth both contributed to child language outcomes. The effect size was greater for sensitivity than warmth and greater in studies of children from low or diverse socioeconomic status (SES) than from high SES.

The authors have performed an excellent service by conducting this meta-analysis and presenting it to a pediatric audience. So important are the features of the learning environment to language development that they have been referred to as “language nutrition.” 3   Pediatric clinicians routinely counsel families about food nutrition. We should address language nutrition with similar urgency. Of course, demonstrating the association between parenting qualities and child outcomes, as in the meta-analysis, does not yet imply which, if any, interventions would successfully change the learning environment or improve child outcomes. Data are accumulating that home-based interventions can raise the level of sensitivity and warmth, 4   although the effectiveness of less-intense interventions must be evaluated.

It is worth noting that sensitivity and warmth do not necessarily represent 2 distinct parenting types but rather 2 features of parenting. Definitions of parental sensitivity in other studies include warmth as a feature. 4   Sensitive responsivity can be disentangled from qualities specifically related to caregiver-child connections in verbal exchange. 5   Precision in the description of language-learning environments is difficult because a meta-analysis depends on the researchers’ characterization.

Sensitivity and warmth do not represent all the critical ingredients of healthy language nutrition. Three other features have been associated with language outcomes. First is the quantity of child-directed speech. Hart and Risley 6   made seminal observations that children of highly educated parents heard many more words than children of less-educated parents and then had better language skills at school entry. Findings that quantity of input is important, irrespective of SES, have been made by using all-day-long audio recordings of the child’s language environment in English- and Spanish-speaking children 7   and in children born term and preterm. 8   These studies corroborate the importance of quantity of child-directed speech and collectively form the foundation of public policy efforts to reduce the “30 million word gap” before a child’s entering school. 9   Second is the quality of the language input. 10   Quality includes diversity of the vocabulary and complexity of grammar. Third is the nature of the caregiver-child interactions, beyond responsivity and warmth. 5   Important qualitative features include degree of caregiver-child engagement with symbols, such as words or signs; frequency of routines and rituals, such as naming or book-reading; and the connectedness of exchange, reflected in topic maintenance and turn-taking.

The proportion of the various ingredients that comprise language nutrition likely varies as a function of the child’s stage of development. 4   Early on, especially in infancy, parental sensitivity and warmth (the focus of the meta-analysis) likely has substantial impact. Once children have begun speaking, cognitive and language features of the input, reflected in quantity and quality of linguistic input and qualitative features of verbal interactions, likely become increasingly impactful. 4   Although features of the environment may be modifiable, promoting stable change and sustainable results may be challenging. 11  

Meta-analyses on the topic of language development are extremely helpful. However, now we also need well-designed treatment studies to inform us about the nature and intensity of interventions to improve language-learning environments and child outcomes. On the basis of the results of the meta-analysis, primary care clinicians should educate caregivers about the importance of their parenting to their children’s language development. If families demonstrate limited warmth, responsiveness, or other components of language nutrition, it is imperative to counsel them and refer to community-based programs to educate and support them in improving their children’s language-learning environment.

Opinions expressed in these commentaries are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the American Academy of Pediatrics or its Committees.

FUNDING: Support for this work was provided by a grant from the NIH RO1- HD069150. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

COMPANION PAPER: A companion to this article can be found online at www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2018-3556 .

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In an environment of nurturing care, children grow in confidence and learn developmentally appropriate skills to create a life-long love of learning. Charlie Bear’s Child Care is a dynamic program that provides early-learning opportunities for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and preschool-plus children of Gritman Medical Center employees and the local community.

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At Charlie Bear’s Child Care, we provide children warm, responsive, individualized care. We partner with parents and families to create a caring circle in which children are secure and nurtured. Our teaching staff applies curriculum and play-based learning activities. Children spend their day in a nurturing, safe and happy environment that promotes natural curiosity and desires.

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Charlie Bear’s Child Care is licensed and inspected annually by the City of Moscow’s Health and Welfare Department. We comply with all requirements for a licensed child care center.

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In addition to following all state and federal regulations, Charlie Bear’s Child Care participates in the Idaho Stars Quality Program. Although participation is not required, this is one more way we can go above and beyond for the children that attend our daycare.

Our educational program is based on Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale guidelines. This comprehensive program includes many areas that contribute to positive child development. The curriculum includes opportunities for children to make their own choices among various learning areas in the classroom, as well as daily teacher-planned activities in language, math, science, art, music and fine motor and gross motor areas.

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You are encouraged to be part of your child’s day at Charlie Bear’s Child Care. Daily reports and information are provided, along with a Parent Resource Center with books, videos and community updates. Family events are held throughout the year to develop strong relationships among the staff, families and children.

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Le Corbusier’s triumphant return to Moscow

The exhibition of French prominent architect Le Corbusier, held in The Pushkin Museum, brings together the different facets of his talent. Source: ITAR-TASS / Stanislav Krasilnikov

The largest Le Corbusier exhibition in a quarter of a century celebrates the modernist architect’s life and his connection with the city.

Given his affinity with Moscow, it is perhaps surprising that the city had never hosted a major examination of Le Corbusier’s work until now. However, the Pushkin Museum and the Le Corbusier Fund have redressed that discrepancy with the comprehensive exhibition “Secrets of Creation: Between Art and Architecture,” which runs until November 18.

Presenting over 400 exhibits, the exhibition charts Le Corbusier’s development from the young man eagerly sketching buildings on a trip around Europe, to his later years as a prolific and influential architect.

The exhibition brings together the different facets of his talent, showing his publications, artwork and furniture design alongside photographs, models and blueprints of his buildings.

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Irina Antonova, director of the Pushkin Museum, said, “It was important for us to also exhibit his art. People know Le Corbusier the architect, but what is less well know is that he was also an artist. Seeing his art and architecture together gives us an insight into his mind and his thought-processes.”

What becomes obvious to visitors of the exhibition is that Le Corbusier was a man driven by a single-minded vision of how form and lines should interact, a vision he was able to express across multiple genres.

The upper wings of the Pushkin Museum are separated by the central stairs and two long balconies. The organizers have exploited this space, allowing comparison of Le Corbusier’s different art forms. On one side there are large paintings in the Purist style he adapted from Cubism, while on the other wall there are panoramic photographs of his famous buildings.

Le Corbusier was a theorist, producing many pamphlets and manifestos which outlined his view that rigorous urban planning could make society more productive and raise the average standard of living.

It was his affinity with constructivism, and its accompanying vision of the way architecture could shape society, which drew him to visit the Soviet Union, where, as he saw it, there existed a “nation that is being organized in accordance with its new spirit.”

The exhibition’s curator Jean-Louis Cohen explains that Le Corbusier saw Moscow as “somewhere he could experiment.” Indeed, when the architect was commissioned to construct the famous Tsentrosoyuz Building, he responded by producing a plan for the entire city, based on his concept of geometric symmetry.

Falling foul of the political climate

He had misread the Soviet appetite for experimentation, and as Cohen relates in his book Le Corbusier, 1887-1965, drew stinging attacks from the likes of El Lissitsky, who called his design “a city on paper, extraneous to living nature, located in a desert through which not even a river must be allowed to pass (since a curve would contradict the style).”

Not to be deterred, Le Corbusier returned to Moscow in 1932 and entered the famous Palace of the Soviets competition, a skyscraper that was planned to be the tallest building in the world.

This time he fell foul of the changing political climate, as Stalin’s growing suspicion of the avant-garde led to the endorsement of neo-classical designs for the construction, which was ultimately never built due to the Second World War.

Situated opposite the proposed site for the Palace of the Soviets, the exhibition offers a tantalizing vision of what might have been, presenting scale models alongside Le Corbusier’s plans, and generating the feeling of an un-built masterpiece.

Despite Le Corbusier’s fluctuating fortunes in Soviet society, there was one architect who never wavered in his support . Constructivist luminary Alexander Vesnin declared that the Tsentrosoyuz building was the "the best building to arise in Moscow for over a century.”

The exhibition sheds light on their professional and personal relationship, showing sketches and letters they exchanged. In a radical break from the abstract nature of most of Le Corbusier’s art, this corner of the exhibition highlights the sometimes volatile architect’s softer side, as shown through nude sketches and classical still-life paintings he sent to Vesnin.

“He was a complex person” says Cohen. “It’s important to show his difficult elements; his connections with the USSR, with Mussolini. Now that relations between Russia and the West have improved, we can examine this. At the moment there is a new season in Le Corbusier interpretation.” To this end, the exhibition includes articles that have never previously been published in Russia, as well as Le Corbusier’s own literature.

Completing Le Corbusier’s triumphant return to Russia is a preview of a forthcoming statue, to be erected outside the Tsentrosoyuz building. Even if she couldn’t quite accept his vision of a planned city, Moscow is certainly welcoming him back.

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