The Absorbent Mind

Fundamental to our early childhood programs is Dr. Montessori’s concept of the Absorbent Mind, the term she gave for the first six years of life. During this period of intense mental activity, children indiscriminately soak up and synthesize vast amounts of information from their world. The most obvious example is the way babies effortlessly master their native languages. Dr. Montessori further classified this stage of development into the Unconscious Absorbent Mind from birth to 3 and the Conscious Absorbent Mind from 3 to 6. 

Students in our YCC program are progressing through the Unconscious Absorbent Mind stage, learning “everything without knowing [they are] learning it” through impressions and interactions from the environment. Freedom and the environment are essential for the child’s development during this stage as they are building all the skills needed for independence.