Maria Montessori also believed that children learn best through sensoryexperiences. Montessori’s period of unconscious absorbent mind and absorbent mindcorresponds closely with Piaget’s sensorimotor and preoperational stages ofdevelopment. From birth until about three years of age, the child is in the phase of theunconscious absorbent mind, during which time the child explores the environmentthrough the senses and through movement (Montessori, 1984).