By Claire Nguyen, Toddler Guide
"The child has a different relation to his environment from ours... the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered; they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ears hear." Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind, p.56)
There is a term that comes to mind right now in the Young Children’s Community for me -- the absorbent mind. Dr. Maria Montessori observed that children under the age of 6 years old take in information effortlessly, just as a sponge soaks up water. She further stated that from birth to the age of 3, children do this completely unconsciously. Dr. Montessori referred to this as the "absorbent mind." Some may or may not be familiar with this term but I wanted to share how this is fully present in the toddler community!
I had the pleasure of observing a child working with clay for some time recently. After 15-20 minutes, I noticed the child continued to be very focused and concentrated on the work in front of her. At the other side of the room, out of sight of the child working with the clay, Mrs. Clune was working with another child. She was providing the nomenclature for table setting, one by one, slowly naming the table setting items “plate”, “fork”, “spoon”, etc. Each time she provided the name of a table setting item, the child working with the clay repeated each word, while still fully focused and working on the clay. Not once did she turn around to look at what Mrs. Clune was presenting to the other child; it was almost as if they weren’t there. But yet, the child working with the clay was absorbing this other information fully.
In The Montessori Toddler, Simone Davies writes, “The ease with which a toddler learns gives us opportunities, as well as responsibilities. Opportunities because they absorb with such ease the language around them (building a rich vocabulary and understanding), how we handle furniture and objects (ideally with care), how we treat others (ideally with respect and kindness), where we put things (creating order), and the beauty of the environment around them. Responsibilities because, as Dr. Montessori points out, a sponge can absorb dirty water as easily as it can clean water. A child will pick up negative experiences as easily as positive experiences.”
With this in mind, let us therefore be mindful, as much as possible. Let us also be positive role models for our young children, to provide beauty, and to offer kindness for them to absorb.