Montessori Child Development Stages, Birth to Three YearsThe first essential for the child's development is concentration. |
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LEARNING TO APPRECIATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENCE, MOVEMENT, LANGUAGE—AND HAPPINESS— IN THE FIRST YEARS OF LIFE Some believe that the very young child is not as interesting to observe, to interact with, or to teach, as older children. At the same time research proves that the first three years of life are the most important as far as forming the child's emotional base, intelligence, social skills and many other aspects of being human. What is the answer? We must learn what to look for, how to interact, what is happening in these first few days, weeks, months, and years, and how to protect and nurture the child in this precious formative period of life. To watch for, and protect from interruption, those precious moments of concentration during which the child constructs himself. Our knowledge will lead to greater happiness, of the adult and of the child. On this page you will find links to videos and information to that end. |
— MORE COMMENTS & FEEDBACK BELOW — |
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—The first Year— |
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In the first days and months of life the child is intensely interested in watching and looking. At first his ability to focus is the distance between his eyes and the mother's face during nursing. Soon he is interested in watching mobiles that move gently in the wind. Mobiles should have no more than 5 objects and they should be real, such as butterflies, birds, or fish—things that move through the air or water. (2.5 months) |
When the older children and adults exactly mimic the baby's first attempts at making verbal sounds, a beautiful conversation, or song, can occur. Here the mother and baby are talking/singing to each other at the changing table. Using the kind of pacifier or gum soother that stays in the mouth and does not have to be held there, can cause an addiction and prevent this wonderful stage of human communication from occurring. (2.5 months) |
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| The This baby was visiting a home where there were no visual mobiles and he needed to carry out this important daily "work". So the mother hung a scarf over a lampshade in front of an open window, creating a moving object for the baby to focus on. Suddenly she realized that it seemed he was ready to move beyond watching, to touch! He tried with his whole body to reach the fringe of the scarf. (2.5 months) | This child has exercised daily on his tummy from the first weeks of life, strengthening his muscles. Now, given a ball that moves slowly, he is inspired to take the next step. He is learning to slither forward on his tummy trying to reach the ball. Soon he will have the muscular control to crawl, then pull, up and finally to stand and walk—just like the other humans he has been observing. (4-5 months) | ||||
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MORE FIRST YEAR INFORMATION ARTICLE: Baby Einstein, Not So Smart After all: article on Baby Einstein Videos: Einstein Videos WEANING: An interesting article written by Susan Stephenson, and a fellow Assistants to Infancy (Birth to Three) teacher. This is a PDF file: weaning TOILET LEARNING: In the Montessori 0-3 program children are not "trained" to use the toilet, but they are taught the natural steps. An article by a Birth to Three teacher in Amsterdam: toilet learning BIRTH TO THREE MATERIALS: for the home or infant community: materials SHARING THIS PAGE |
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Children all over the world exhibit the same stages of development when they have an environment that supports them. A mattress on the floor, freedom to move and explore in a very safe place. This little Polish boy shows us the whole body rocking stage that precedes crawling, the balance and confidence to develop the abilities to get off of his floor bed, and no doubt the excitement to move from the bedroom to the wider world of the rest of the home. |
Please feel free to link this page to your school website, training center website, or any other educational site for parents or students.You may share any of this text, or the pictures or videos, as long as it is for the purpose of educating young people or adults, or helping children. Please credit "With permission of http://www.thejoyfulchild.us" |
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—One to Three Years— |
MORE COMMENTS & FEEDBACK | ||||
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I used these video clips in my talk with our 0 to 3 parents Thursday night, and they loved them. Lots of "ooh's" and "aah's." I think this group of parents in particular could really relate to the developmental "miracles" they were seeing, because they are going through these stages right now with their own children. The 2.5 month old "working on reaching for the scarf" illustrates the beginnings of this urge to reach and grasp, and it is perfect because it shows how the child is using every fiber of his being (not just the arm and hand), in this very intense work. His whole body is vibrating, and the emotion he is expressing is joy! This site really is fantastic, I am going to mail it to everyone. Thank you! |
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| Above are two charming YouTube videos created by a young mother who used the principles, and materials, described in The Joyful Child, (by Susan Stephenson) such as floor bed, small table and chair, small silverware, apron, even the vegetable cards made from paintings by Susan Stephenson, hung at the child's level in the kitchen as art work and vocabulary lessons. She has created a home environment that supports her child's independence, wisdom, and optimum development. We applaud her efforts. | Susan these are breathtakingly beautiful and a blessing to be widely seen! |
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I just can't find the words to say how inspiring this latest Birth to Three message is that you have posted. These videos should be required viewing for Montessori training courses. Many children will have a better "growing up" time thanks to you. Bless you, thank you, you make my heart sing!!! It has been and is such an honor to be one of your many, many friends.
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While Susan was interviewing the mother, aunt, grandmother, of Resa in Bhutan, someone spilled water. The older sister brought a cloth in from the kitchen to clean it up and Resa reached for it. The she began to clean up the spill. Realizing that I was taking a picture with my still digital camera the mother told Resa to look up at the camera. Resa said "No, I will not look up!" The adults appreciated that fact that their including children in the everyday activities of the family is something valued in Montessori education. See the BHUTAN BIRTH-3 link above for more pictures and text that were a result of this interview. |
Dear Susan, The videos are so fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing them with us. I will use them both for parents conferences and in the birth preparation class. Thank you for being there to make such big differences in children's lives. |
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Your videos show, in a way that words cannot, the importance of living in the moment, cherishing precious time spent with your children, and viewing your children with wonder. It is a profound lesson for all parents. It is a lesson we must not only learn, but relearn, again and again. These children are all concentrating and loving every second of it (and "immensely happy" doesn't necessarily mean a lot of smiling faces). To talk about concentration is one thing, but to see intense concentration is quite another. Concentration is about squeezing every drop out of "now."
—Growing Up— |
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A child first learns to UNDRESS and practices undressing over and over again. Eventually, in his own time he will learn to DRESS himself. One of the greatest gifts we can give at this stage is to not interrupt the child's important work, and to manage to give him time. Time for the child to carry out each new skill as many times as possible. Repetition is the key to the child's development and only the child knows how many times he needs to do this with each attempt. The video shows a little girl (19 months) in an Infant Community connected with the AMI teacher training course for birth to three: 0-3 course
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GENERAL MONTESSORI INFORMATION The main Michael Olaf page has very interesting information about Montessori in general: www.michaelolaf.net ADOLESCENTS LEARNING ABOUT PARENTING The Montessori 0-3 information is part of the Human Development curriculum for a Montessori Middle school: Human Development Course |
When a child is loved and respected for who she is from birth, instead of being trained and pruned to what adults think she should be, there is no limit to the kind of compassionate, creative, problem-solving adult will result.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki was born in Vancouver, Canada, where she attended a Montessori school. At the age of nine, she founded the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other youngsters about environmental issues, and in 1992, at the age of 12, raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where she was applauded for delivering the above speech to the delegates. This video has since become known as "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 6 Minutes". more |
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Bio of the author of this page: Susan |
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