A lírica de receção infantil e o desenvolvimento multissensorial da criança

Abstract

In the first chapter of the book Da escola sem sentido à escola dos sentidos [From School without Sense to School of the Senses] António Torrado reflects on the primacy of the sight and the consequent negligence of the other physical senses in contemporary society. The poet and playwright reminds the reader that progress means continuous visual stimulation, and denounces the connivance of the school system, which encourages multisensory experiences in preschool and in elementary school education, but subjects the learners in subsequent grades to a predominantly bookish education, improving their visual perception, without preparing them to appreciate auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile stimuli. Yet, the formative potentialities of the five physical senses are evident in the linguistic text too, because the linguistic sign does not just stimulate the reader's visual ability. In the materiality of the significant, or in the immateriality of the signifié, the word or the sentence stimulates multisensory perception, allowing the reader / listener to enjoy shapes and colours, smells and sounds, textures, and flavours. The poetic text plays an important role, since it restores, generates and correlates sensorial images in a condensed way, to better insinuate the inexpressible essence of being. Not only António Torrado's cultural-critical essay, but also Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory are a useful framework for reflecting on the role of literature as a source of multisensory experiences, and for recognizing the invaluable contribution of poetry to the full multisensory development and, thus, to the holistic formation of the human being.