The Four Planes of Development
by Rizka Amanda, S.Psi
Child development will always be a huge topic for parents and teachers. There is a lot of information and theories out there which often lead us to think “which one we should follow?”. If you try to search on the internet about child development stages you will see “5 stages of child development” or “7 stages of child development”, you’ll even find “9 stages of child development” and all of them varied in theories. However, aside from the confusion, I believe that all stages are important, often the same, and must be passed. By this article, I would love to share a piece of information, theory, and both my observations & experiences about The Montessori Four Planes of Development.
In Montessori, we believe in “sensitive periods”. Sensitive periods are periods of psychological development in the child. This period is a time of limited duration. During the sensitive periods, the child has very powerful capacities. The child is able to do great things and make very important acquisitions, like language and movement. But after some time, these powers disappear (Raskin, 2018). Maria Montessori said, these sensitive periods are of great importance and education must facilitate this opportunity which is inherent in the child. Education must prepare an environment that will aid the development of life (The 1946 London Lectures, p. 38). To understand when are the sensitive periods happened to our child we first must understand the child's development which I will gladly invite you to learn about The Four Planes of Development that include my observations and experiences as a bonus.
These are Maria Montessori’s Four Planes of Development:
Resource : https://actonacademycolumbus.com/blog/Montessori-stages-development-infancy
I will break all planes into 3 different views: the 1st one would be the Maria Montessori theory, the 2nd one would be my observations, and the last would be based on my own experiences.
Infancy: 0-6
Dr. Maria Montessori calls this the “absorbent mind,” meaning that the child’s brain has a sponge-like capacity to absorb from the environment all that is necessary to develop an individual from her specific culture (Nruiz, 2018). Children have a strong desire for physical independence which you will notice an “I can do it myself” or “Help me do it myself” mentality. Based on my observations as a Montessori teacher, at this plane development children are indeed very eager to do everything by themselves. They are often impatient when it comes to materials presentation and also often interrupted the presentations. They are basically adventurers who want to fulfill their curiosity about this world in a concrete way. However, I couldn’t say the same about my own experience. My memory within this plane was very blurry and I don’t recall them much when I was in kindergarten. While all of my kindergarten friends were busy sharing their experiences, I was just sitting there trying to recall the non-existent memory.
Childhood: 6-12
This plane is considered as a relatively calm and stable period compared to the previous plane. The child has mastered basic human skills. He adapted socially to his culture. He is now learning through reasoning, using his imagination and logic to explore areas of study. He wants to come to his conclusion, wants to know how things work. The child at this age has an insatiably inquisitive mind. The question they asked in the first plane was, “What is it?” but now they ask, “Why is it?” “Why do these things happen?”, “What if they don’t happen?”, “How does the world work?” (Tosch, 2018). Now, let me share my observations result about this plane. As both a Montessori teacher and an Educational Therapy practitioner for my previous job, I teach a lot of students with a variety of amazing personalities. Children’s interests within this age are on their social needs. As Dr. Maria Montessori said, their focus is on the local community. They begin to understand the concept of friendship and prepare themselves to build one. However, the questions “why” or “how” don’t always popped out. From what I observed, these questions are mostly asked by children at the age of 0-6 years old.
Adolescence: 12-18
This plane is marked by feelings of self-concern and self-assessment, the third plane of development is a sensitive period for critical thinking and exploring deeper moral and social values (Nruiz, 2018). The physical changes that accompany puberty are rapid and dramatic. The body is getting weaker, clumsier, less dynamic because of all the changes, and children are not inclined to great energy (Tosch, 2018). Dr. Maria Montessori believes that children within this age are focused on their global community with the needs of “Help me think with you”. While I write this I was thinking of one student that I will never forget. He was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome but he was very functional. When I taught him, was around 13 to 14 years old. He’s a bright young boy, very vocal, very smart, yet very fragile. When at this age he was supposed to be socially independent yet he refused to be involved with any social activity. I asked him to say hi to one of the teachers and he told me “I better die than say hi to them”. It took me around 5- 6 months to make him at least say hi to one of the teachers at our center. Teaching him makes me think that being a teenager is exhausting both mentally and physically. It brought me back to my teenage year where everything was so hard and exhausting. Imagine when your body went
through all the changes while at the same time you mentally found yourself in-between status: neither child anymore, nor adult. Based on my experience I think what’s important and most needed within this sensitive period is support. Teenagers can be very tricky to handle yet once you gain their trust, their hearts and mind will open as wide as they are allowed to.
Maturity: 18-24
A consolidation of all that has been acquired before, this is the transition to adulthood. The physical development is over. The adolescent becomes an individual, part of the society, social person and it will emerge after all into a secure, responsible, independent, moral, and social adult (Tosch, 2018). From 18-21 years, they are in a period of questioning, a career search. From 21-24, they are settling in with what they want to take on. If we have given the youth enough exposure to many branches of learning and practical skills, s/he can now choose a profession that is deeply satisfying. The quest for independence can now be achieved (Tosch, 2018). Let me bring you to what I experienced within this plane development. Choosing a career path is very challenging for me. I am a Psychology graduate. I always said to my parents that I don’t want to spend my time working behind the monitor. I want to be involved in my job, I want to create something, I want to make an impact. But at that time I don’t know what specific career that I want. Because of this, I was stuck questioning “what do I want?”, “what do I want to be?”, “Is 4 years of my college year would end up working on something that I don’t like?”, the confusion goes on. I was not even 23 at that time, but I had already experienced a quarter-life crisis. But don’t worry I’m almost 27 now, the crisis is over. What I want to say is, I agree with what Tosch said that exposing your kid to many branches of learning and practical skills will definitely help them to choose a profession that is deeply satisfying for them.
“It begins with a knowledge of his surroundings. How does the child assimilate his environment? He does it solely in virtue of one of those characteristics that we now know him to have. This is an intense and specialised sensitiveness in consequence of which the things about him awaken so much interest and so much enthusiasm that they become incorporated in his very existence. The child absorbs these impressions not with his mind but with his life itself.” - Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 22
Resources:
https://www.montessoriinreallife.com/home/2019/3/27/sensitive-periods https://www.stepbystepmontessori.com/2018/07/25/sensitive-periods-in-child- development/#:~:text=Sensitive%20periods%20are%20periods%20of,acquisitions%2C%20like%20language%20and%20mov ement.
https://silverlinemontessori.com/four-planes-of-development-in-a-montessori-school/ https://www.2millefeuilles.ch/articles/the-4-planes-of-development-by-maria-montessori/
