It is in the Sensorial area that the child uses his hand to construct his own intelligence. Materials found in this area serve as a first step in the child’s quest to provide an ordered framework for all of the future sensory experiences he will have. Through this framework, the child will be able to build upon his first impressions of culture in his immediate environment and eventually find his place in the larger society that awaits him. Because the child is born with an Absorbent Mind, he takes in his whole environment without any preprogrammed way to organize and classify the newly acquired impressions. Classifying is the core of learning; the reasoning mind needs to compare, identify, recognize differences, as well as gradations in differences, and have experiences that lead to understanding.
Isolation of Sensory Qualities
Exercises in the Sensorial area assist the child in organizing his perceptions and building a solid foundation for intellectual growth. The child works with materials that isolate one quality of the senses at a time. For example, there are sound cylinders that isolate the quality of volume and color tablets that isolate the quality of color. There are materials for temperature, touch, weight, length, volume, dimension, and even the parts of a plant.
Physical Manipulation and Exploration
All Sensorial materials depend upon the physical interaction that the child will have with the materials through both his hands and eyes. Extensions and explorations take the form of games which allow for small group experiences and promote social interactions.
Through the orderly exploration of the materials, a strong foundation for future work habits is established; one which provides the child with the ability to organize his thoughts. Dr. Montessori wrote, “Thus, the child, having acquired the power of distinguishing one thing from another, has laid the foundations of the intelligence….When he discovers with so much emotion that the sky is blue, that his hand is smooth, that the window is rectangular, he does not in reality discover the sky, nor the hand, nor the window, but he discovers their position in the order of his mind by arrangement of his ideas. "
Each of the Sensorial materials encourages independence and self-confidence. If the child makes an error, the material itself tells the child so that it is not the responsibility or the duty of the Morah to correct the child. The material leads the child to apply his own powers of reason and to develop critical thinking abilities that will serve him for life.
Foundation for the Mathematical Mind
The Sensorial materials have been called “materialized abstractions” because each physical material seeks to isolate one abstract quality in a physical form. This provides an indirect preparation for learning mathematics and language. For example, the Pink Tower indirectly prepares the child for work with mathematics because it is the "materialized abstraction" of the algorithmic series of the third power. The Binomial Cube indirectly prepares the child for finding the cube root, because it is the "materialized abstraction" of (a+b)3. This is only possible because all material in the Sensorial environment is able to be physically explored by the child.
Language Foundation
Once the child has had extensive experience with the Sensorial materials, then the child’s work is taken to a higher level with the addition of language. Through language, the child is given words to express what he has learned so that he may communicate with those in his environment. Once a child has learned blue and green, he is now able to "discover" aqua and then share that discovery with others through language. Language is the ultimate end of the child’s quest to classify his environment. It is important that the child experience the full progression of materials, exercises, language and games for optimal progression and development of his senses.
Sensory Pathways for Learning
The Sensorial area also has the unexpected benefit of assisting the Morah to address any sensory issues early so that other pathways for learning may be utilized. The perceptual ability of the child is improved with repeated early experiences that can often help to reveal to parents, or the Morah, any learning differences the child might have.
Keys to the Universe
Dr. Montessori’s work with children lead her to the discovery that education of the child is much more than teaching him to read and write. The whole child must be considered, “In other words, we all have inborn attractions which cause us to grow and to develop, in accordance with the nature which is ours alone. The child who has worked with our sensorial apparatus has not only acquired greater skill in the use of the hands, but has also achieved a higher degree of perceptiveness towards those stimuli which come to him from the outside world. To this extent the outside world has become enriched for him, because he is able to appreciate delicate differences which to a less perceptive person might as well not exist.”
The Absorbent Mind, The Clio Montessori Series, pg. 166