Montessori Touch Boards: Explanation

Montessori is famous for using tactile, hands on materials that engage the child’s senses in learning. Among these materials, Montessori Touch Boards are used to refine the child’s sense of touch to recognise texture, roughness and smoothness. These touch boards like other Montessori sensorial materials are essential in shaping the child’s sensory perception and preparing them for more complex academic concepts.

In this post we will take a closer look at the Montessori Touch Boards, their presentation and their relevance to sensory development. We will also look at the Montessori Brown Stair, another important Montessori material and how both materials serve different but complementary roles in early childhood education.

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Introduction

Montessori education is all about sensory learning, which means children learn through direct experience of their environment using all their senses. Touch being one of the primary senses plays a big role in the early stages of a child’s learning journey.

The Montessori Touch Boards are a set of tactile learning materials to refine a child’s sense of touch by offering different textures to explore. These boards allow children to experience rough and smooth surfaces. This helps them develop skills that will aid in language acquisition and writing readiness.

Similarly the Montessori Brown Stair, a tool to enhance a child’s visual and tactile sense of dimensions introduces mathematical concepts in a subtle way. These materials though targeting different senses both refine the child’s cognitive and motor skills.

See an example of the Montessori Brown Stair in the classroom here.

What is a Montessori Touch Board?

The Montessori Touch Board is a sensory material that comes in three types of boards:

1. Touch Board 1: Divided into two sections, one side is rough and the other is smooth. This allows the child to experience a big contrast in textures.
2. Touch Board 2: Divided into strips of different degrees of roughness, this board helps the child to differentiate finer textures.
3. Touch Board 3: A variation that has a range of textures from very rough to very smooth to allow more precise differentiation.

The purpose of the Touch Boards is to refine the child’s sense of touch and introduce the concept of texture which will later prepare them for writing and other fine motor activities. This material is introduced to children between 2.5 to 3.5 years and is part of the Sensorial curriculum in Montessori education.

Using these boards helps children become more aware of the textures they encounter in their daily life. By experiencing materials of different roughness and smoothness children build a strong tactile memory which is essential for sensory development.

Presentation of the Touch Boards

Touch Boards are presented to the child in a specific Montessori way so that children can then explore the materials independently after being shown how to use them.

Step 1: Invitation and Naming

The teacher invites the child to a special space, usually on a mat or table, and names the touch boards. The teacher tells the child what each board is called and how it is used.

Step 2: Demonstration

The teacher demonstrates how to use the boards. For the first touch board the teacher gently runs their fingers over the rough side and then the smooth side and pauses to point out the difference in texture. The child is to watch closely and do the same.

Step 3: Exploration

Once the child has learned how to use the board they are to explore it independently. The child can move their fingers across the surfaces, compare textures and see how the rough and smooth feel different. This is key to the Montessori method.

Step 4: Language

As the child is working with the touch boards the teacher introduces vocabulary to describe the textures using words like “rough”, “smooth”, “softer” and “harder”. This adds a language element to the activity and helps the child connect the tactile sensations with the words.

By this structured but flexible presentation children develop their sense of touch and language, preparing them for tasks that require tactile awareness like writing.

What are the benefits of Montessori Touch Boards?

Montessori Touch Boards are all about refining the sense of touch but the Montessori Brown Stair is for something different, to develop visual and spatial awareness. The Brown Stair is for children to understand size and dimension by stacking and arranging blocks from biggest to smallest.

Here’s how the Montessori Brown Stair fits into the learning journey that starts with the touch boards:

1. Mathematical Preparation: While the touch boards are developing tactile discrimination, the Brown Stair is introducing children to early mathematical concepts. These concepts include sequencing, dimension, and volume.
2. Children are beginning to understand thickness which lays the foundation for understanding geometry and maths later on.
3. Visual Discrimination: The Brown Stair allows children to see size differences, they can notice the subtle differences in block thickness. This complements the tactile discrimination learned with the Touch Boards.
4. Fine Motor Skills: Both materials require careful handling so children are improving their fine motor control. The precise placement of the Brown Stair blocks and the gentle movement of fingers across the Touch Boards are developing dexterity. They are also developing hand-eye coordination.
5. Concentration and Independence: Just as with the Touch Boards children are working independently with the Brown Stair so they are improving their concentration and focus. The self correcting nature of the materials is encouraging children to take control of their own learning.

These benefits illustrate how the Brown Stair and Touch Boards are not isolated materials. They are part of a cohesive Montessori system that nurtures a child’s overall development.

Unlock your passion for education as a Montessori teacher!

Extensions of Montessori Materials

Montessori teachers often use extensions to go deeper with the materials. Extensions for the Touch Boards include pairing them with other sensory materials. These materials include the Rough and Smooth Boards or the Fabric Box. This introduces more complex tactile differences.

For the Montessori Brown Stair, extensions are to combine it with the Pink Tower, another Montessori material that focuses on size and shape differences, to challenge the child more on spatial relationships.

And teachers can combine both the Touch Boards and the Brown Stair into thematic learning like textures in nature or building shapes with materials of different thickness.

Conclusion

The Montessori Touch Boards help children refine their sense of touch and the Montessori Brown Stair their visual and spatial awareness. Both materials contribute to cognitive and motor development. When used together, they prepare children for more complex academic tasks like writing, geometry, and problem-solving.

By using these materials children build tactile and visual skills and learn to concentrate, think critically and work independently. The self correcting nature of both the Touch Boards and the Brown Stair gives children a sense of confidence and autonomy.

Montessori Teachers Training Courses are highly recommended for educators and parents. They want to go deeper into the Montessori method and guide children to use these materials effectively. Entri has courses that covers the use of sensorial materials like Touch Boards and Brown Stair so educators can create engaging and effective learning environment for young children.