How different Montessori is from the other methodologies? Ask yourself a very simple question. Most of us owns a smart phone these days and are very dependent on the device. Who taught us how to operate a smart phone? Did you ever read the thick manual that comes along with your purchase?
Most likely not as we would have explored the functions of the phone by just playing around with it causally. With time and repetition, we become expert at using the phones. Never once would we have read the manual. Reason being that the manual is full of words and just by reading it may not make sense to us. It is purely symbolic and abstract when we just read and not work on the phone.
The same concept can be used to explain what Montessori is all about. Children are being introduced to different concepts in a sensorial approach. They are not introduced to a concept just in print. They are given the opportunity to explore, feel and understand a concept through specially designed Montessori materials before they are exposed to the concept of abstraction.
This will allow the child time to absorb and understand the relationship between the concrete and abstraction.