The Pedagogic Corner: Maria Montessori and Helen Doron - part 2
What is Montessori?
Helen Doron, born in London, studied Linguistic Science and French at the University of Reading and taught at the Poitiers University in France before completing an M.A. in Linguistics. While living abroad with her own three children, Helen's keen enthusiasm for child development gave rise to her method of teaching English as a foreign language to small children. The method was originally influenced by the Japanese MD and violin teacher, Dr. Suzuki, whose studies show that music is language and could be made available to very young children. He claimed that children can learn to play instruments, without having to learn the written notation, just through repetitive hearing and imitation. Helen, a singer and lover of music agreed that music is indeed a language but likewise language is music. She said: “If Dr. Suzuki is teaching the language of music, why aren't we teaching the music of language to our infants and children?” Since 1985, Helen Doron's method for teaching English as a foreign language using repetitive hearing, positive feedback and lots of music has evolved into a most successful system now practiced in over 20 countries. There have been around 300,000 HD pupils registered worldwide.
English is not just cool - it really connects us as the world language. “Language is an instrument of collective thought” (MM). Both Dr. Maria Montessori (MM) and Helen Doron (HD) agree that the child's learning potential up to the age of 6 is the most effective time to sow the seeds for physical, intellectual and spiritual stimulus. Over the years HD's programme has been evolving and is presently being used not only for kindergarten children but also for infants from a few months of age right up to the age of 14.
Maria Montessori divided the first 6 years into important 'Sensitive Periods' for
- Order (inner and outer order)
- Language
- Movement
“Before the age of 3 the child's functions are being created, after 3 they develop.”
Maria Montessori claimed that from the age of 0-4, 50% of the mature intelligence is developing and from 4-8 a further 30%. The child absorbs through its senses and learns by doing and imitating what it sees and hears in its immediate environment.
- What is Montessori? - part 1
- What is Montessori? - part 2
- What is Montessori? - part 3
- What is Montessori? - part 4