Children have an absorbent mind. They absorb knowledge from the environment without fatigue. [...] This is the moment in the life of man when we can...

A child can only acquire the words he hears spoken around him. This is not teaching but absorption. The child is, by nature, hungry for words; he...

The absorption of the environment is an intellectual activity. It is a psychic necessity that the child explores the environment; it satisfies his...

The child must construct his adaptation to his environment from the beginning of his life. This adaptation is developed by the child taking in...

We must, for this reason, take great care in this early period when nothing shows in the external life. If anything is lacking in these first two...

The newborn child can do nothing alone. He has to be carried into the environment. If he is left alone, he cannot develop, but if he is brought into...

The child’s type of mind is an absorbing mind; it absorbs whatever is around it. An adult’s mind elaborates. We call the child’s mind the absorbent...

Certainly it is a new task that confronts us, to study and take into account the needs of this absorbent mind. It is to respond to these needs that...

If you consider this absorbent mind in relation to language, you will understand how necessary it is to put a small child among people who speak well...

A marvellous fact is that this absorbent mind never feels fatigue. It is just like a camera: it clicks, and everything is there all of a sudden.