Development of the Senses

About a third of all children over the age of 10, are found to have not finished the developments of the first 7 years. These are developments of the lower senses of touch, life, movement and balance.  The sense of balance involves the establishment of a pattern of laterality, the overcoming of mirroring, the overcoming of the three midplanes and the discernment of near versus far, private versus shared space. The other three lower senses concern developments that lie deeper still .. in movement’s fluency and accuracy .. in life’s well-being and wholesomeness .. and in the primal sense of touch that obliges us to experience our own body over against the world-body. Together these accomplishments amount to the perceptual basis for stepping into the earthly world with readiness to learn at the age of 7 as a school age child.  For the tasks of writing, reading and arithmetic, the four higher senses : of hearing, of speech-sound, of concept and of the I-being of the other, are built upon the four lower senses, as a higher note is to its lower octave. 

From the 1960’s to the 1990’s Audrey McAllen’s Extra Lesson   <https://www.extralesson.com.au/#welcome> pioneered a path for this work. In practice an Extra Lesson assessment of the lower senses proves to show incomplete development (i.e. of the early years’ stages) among children with issues that may have been already flagged-up : dyslexia / wordblindness, number blindness, poor attention focus with unguided bodily movements (ADHD), difficulties with meeting and communicating (ASD).  A régime of specific remedy-tasks can help, sometimes decisively. These include movement-coordination exercises and drawing activities that amount to a re-living-through earlier stages.  An integument is built, making-up (in part) for what was not developed at a young age.  In general, the younger the child (from age 6 upward) the more rapid and firm is the progress made.  However, there is no upper age limit - young people and adults, with their own understanding, motivation and self-carrying, often conquer well.

Under the title Development of the Senses I seek to anchor the Extra Lesson in Rudolf Steiner’s indications on the senses. This proves to tie the different strands of activity together.

Over the past twenty years I’ve built-up five one day workshops on the Development of the Senses :  (1) The Pattern of Dominance and the Overcoming of Mirroring .. (2) Overcoming the Three Midplanes .. (3) Completion of an Assessment of Senses’ Development .. (4) Releasing Stress .. (5) Developing the Capacity for Attention

These have been done here in England, in Ireland at some of the County Education Centres and hence largely for primary teachers in main stream schools .. and at centres further overseas.

A Multi-Sensory Approach to Numeracy

In 4 one-day workshops I aim to equip teachers with visible, tactile and spoken methods for the development of children’s number-concepts.  We work from visible picture-making - to mental picture - to concept.  This addresses the need of all children, to inwardly picture number-relationships.  Where appropriate, the focus is on the needs of those who struggle to do this, especially the dyslexic and the dyscalculic (number-blind) children.  Participants gain a kit bag of methods through working on the practical tasks in groups and through the illustrated material to take-away.  An understanding of this approach enables teachers to create their own techniques.  In outline the entire journey of primary mathematics is included, while drawing from Rudolf Steiner’s indications on the teaching and learning of mathematics.  The 4 stand-alone workshops are : (1) From Counting to Basic Arithmetic .. (2) Floor and Table-Top Methods .. (3) Fractions with Floor Layouts .. (4) Solving Algebra Riddles.

As an independent teacher I have a weekly timetable of lessons - with children who need either help or enrichment in mathematics - in which the above methods ( also from the Extra Lesson and the Development of the Senses ) are applied as proves individually appropriate.  With a love of mathematics itself, I continue to tutor secondary-age students including the 18 / 19 year old tasks to A-level, IB and NZCSE.

For the past four school years I’ve taught the level 3 NZCSE students specialising in physics from class 12 at the South Devon Steiner School where I’ve also enjoyed mentoring both class teachers and upper school teachers in the subject.

In the lecture course The Boundaries of Natural Science given by Rudolf Steiner in Sept / Oct 1920 (GA322) he described how the deeds of arithmetic ( plus, minus, multiply, divide .. also raising to a power and finding a root ) arise out of the working of the lower senses of life, movement and balance.  Drawing from these lectures, the founder of Camphill, Karl König, in 1964 gave seminars on Arithmetic to Waldorf teachers, seeking to characterise the links between these lower senses and the actions of arithmetic.

The task remains, I would say, to complete that work to the point of having a manual of mathematics-teaching in terms of the senses of life, movement and balance.  Exploring ways in which children reveal this origin of numeracy, I hope I’m on the way to a manual such as that.  It’s also fair to say, however, that all the mathematical specialists I’ve consulted so far, find it a veiled mystery and I completely appreciate that viewpoint : It’s as if the usual (hands-off) ways of doing mathematics can get in the way of experiencing mathematics through the limbs and senses.

The ancient Greeks did their geometry and their reckoning in the sand or earth underfoot.  Thereby every step in arithmetic was accompanied by an image, a spatial representation, involving line or surface - so that the sounding rhythms of number (arithmetic) became forms that could be seen.  On one occasion in the west of Ireland, the teachers did class 7 / 8 geometry as gigantic constructions in the sand, right across the bay of Lahinch.  Thereby one stands with the lower limbs, within the activity.  It is precisely polar to beholding the drawing on the page .. an equally important experience .. and in this polarity lies the meaning of multi-sensory mathematics.

Other Activities

Here in Devon I facilitate a weekly study-gathering that over the years has worked-on three strands that twist into one chord : Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom, Projective Geometry and Plant Observation.

Lectures on educational themes that arise out of Anthroposophy and practical workshops on all of the above have been given on a regular basis in England, at Steiner Schools and trainings in Ireland and the Waldorf teacher training at Skanderborg in Denmark.  Other, occasional, venues have included the Learning Support Teachers’ Conference at the Goetheanum in Dornach in Switzerland, Waldorf training conferences in China and Waldorf schools in Nepal.  Most recently I have given online sessions for the Melbourne-based Asia-Pacific Waldorf training, on Early Years Developments (for along the way I was Kindergartener) and on Geometry for Class 8.

Gordon Woolard     Sept 2022