A child gains dignity and a sense of his own worth. Through the senses the child gains knowledge, becomes more aware of his environment and grows in consciousness. The aim of the Sensorial materials, which are scientific, precise and exact, are to refine rather than develop the senses. The child is able to bring order and system to the impressions he has already gathered. Materials refine the child's motor co-ordination, help visual discrimination, refine the senses, and deepen concentration.
Children compare dimensions, classic shapes and discriminate between size, and colour.
All these are an indirect preparation for reading, writing and math. When the children have shapes with the Metal Insets they make them into booklets. In the Montessori environment the child meets the alphabet through the Sandpaper Letters . The child traces the letter and learns the sound, giving a muscular impression, through repetition the child fixes the path of the letters in his memory. At the same time the child learns pencil control by working with the Metal Insets , tracing a shape and then colouring it in is the equivalent of writing pages of words.