Montessori Values Explained: The Importance of Precise Language in the Prepared Environment

One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand. ~ Quintillion, Roman Rhetorician, the first century C.E.

The main purpose of language is to let others know what we are thinking by communicating our thoughts, ideas and feelings, analyzing previous experiences, and generating new ideas. The ability to order our world and communicate our cultural ideas separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Montessori believed that language is an innate ability and that the sensitive period for language begins in utero and lasts until the age of six. During this sensitive period, the child absorbs language through listening to the sound of her environment. Through every conversation, every book read aloud, every song that is sung, and every new word that is taught, the child is learning language.

It is, therefore, crucial that adults are mindful of the precision of language they use. Just as the environment is carefully prepared for the child, our words must be precisely thought out as well. During the first three years of life, patterns of speech are formed which will be the basis of speech for the rest of a child’s life.