Observation is the act or process of looking carefully for prolonged periods of time to gain information and is a habit developed by practice. Montessori guides are trained in observation techniques as they provide the basis for the teacher to help the child further develop according to the child’s needs as observed in an environment that permits them to act spontaneously. (Boehnlein)

“Isolated psychical researches… if they are to be of any real value, must be based upon prolonged observation, after the internal activities have become orderly, because it is easy to make errors of judgment in a chaos… when we speak of ‘keeping a subject under observation’ for purposes of diagnosis, we mean placing him in special surroundings, under hygienic and disciplinary conditions, etc. and observing him for some time in such an environment. Such a process has a value still more extensive and profound in the case of normal individuals in process of evolution. n such a case it is necessary not only to offer orderly external surroundings, but to reduce the chaotic internal world of the child in order, and after this to observe him for a considerable time.” (Montessori, Maria, The Advanced Montessori Method, Volume I, p. 86)