Language: English

ISSN: 1354-1498

Abstract/Notes: Piaget and Social Learning

Language: English

ISSN: 1354-1498

Language: English

ISSN: 1354-1498

Abstract/Notes: includes photo, figure, and references

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Abstract/Notes: includes figure and further reading suggestions

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Abstract/Notes: "MORE Abstracts 2003? This work examines the early possibility of written language acquisition and describes a direct experience. In the London course of 1946, Maria Montessori said that the letters of the alphabet should be in children’s bedrooms from very early on and that she would also like to have floating letters in order to use them at children bath time. The composition of words is the precursory act of the super-language we call “reading and writing” and must not necessarily boil down to the mere writing and reading activity itself. Indeed, for Maria Montessori, “it is worth separating this act which can be clearly independent of its higher utilizations”. On the suggestion of a Montessori teacher of unquestionable experience, polished letters were presented to a one-year-old child. The great interest the child showed for this material seems to confirm the “hunger for words” that is typical of this phase, already described by Montessori and then confirmed by Nobel prize-winner John Eccles. The child we observed also showed he could use this material almost immediately to compose words like zio (“uncle”), cane (“dog”), his own name, Raul, and others besides. However, when he tried to compose the word gatto (“cat”), he found himself in insurmountable difficulty and turned to an adult saying, “No, gato no, gatto”, showing he clearly understood the sounds making up the word and thus the letters needed to compose it (gatto). This impossibility was connected to the fact that the polished letters have only one example of each letter. Therefore, a system of mobile alphabet letters was introduced so that the child could continue his fascinating work of word composition which greatly interested him. A study is being made in some child communities, in cooperation with the Montessori Studies Centre, in order to repeat this observation and to finally heed Maria Montessori’s recommendation: “Education must start at birth and the first two years are the most important for all the acquisitions of the psychic embryo”.

Language: English

ISSN: 2281-8375

Abstract/Notes: includes photos

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647