HEALING
Montessori Therapy
The special plasticity of the central nervous system of the developing child, gives it the unique ability to adapt and change. In Montessori Therapy parents play a decisive part in the early detection of developmental arrears and they are introduced to developmental rehabilitation activities which they can continue with their child at home.
MEfA Montessori Developmental Therapy progresses through six stages:
Stage 1
Early childhood is the best time to intervene to assist the developmental rehabilitation of children with innate or early-acquired damage or disorders.
Stage 2
Developmental rehabilitation includes early detection, early treatment and early social integration in families, nurseries and schools of children with damage or disorders.
Stage 3
Parents' knowledge of their child provides the key to early detection of developmental arrears of all kinds. Parents are also the best therapists, having daily opportunities to interact with their child.
Stage 4
Montessori Therapy introduces parents, in minute, baby steps, to a comprehensible programme of early treatment so that parents can carry it out at home.
Stage 5
Educating children with developmental arrears alongside normally developing children encourages the physical, social and emotional development and thus the speech, language and communication of all the children.
Stage 6
Parents learn from one another, just as children do. Montessori Therapy groups provide a unique forum where parents help their children with practical and social integration activities which assist in early social integration at home and in nurseries and schools.
MEfA Montessori Developmental Therapy progresses through six stages:
Stage 1
Early childhood is the best time to intervene to assist the developmental rehabilitation of children with innate or early-acquired damage or disorders.
Stage 2
Developmental rehabilitation includes early detection, early treatment and early social integration in families, nurseries and schools of children with damage or disorders.
Stage 3
Parents' knowledge of their child provides the key to early detection of developmental arrears of all kinds. Parents are also the best therapists, having daily opportunities to interact with their child.
Stage 4
Montessori Therapy introduces parents, in minute, baby steps, to a comprehensible programme of early treatment so that parents can carry it out at home.
Stage 5
Educating children with developmental arrears alongside normally developing children encourages the physical, social and emotional development and thus the speech, language and communication of all the children.
Stage 6
Parents learn from one another, just as children do. Montessori Therapy groups provide a unique forum where parents help their children with practical and social integration activities which assist in early social integration at home and in nurseries and schools.
At MEfA Montessori we have a range of options to support you and your child/ren from one-to-one private classes to small group and family therapy classes as listed above.
The Keys to Mental Health and Growth:
Dr Maria Montessori described children’s uninterrupted experiences with the prepared learning environment as ‘cycles of activity’. The basic principle is that the child’s mind should grip reality and establish contacts with reality suitable to every stage of development. Personal experiences carried out on reality form real knowledge. Such experiences are not only the basis of mental growth but also of mental health.
Failure to provide facilities for the performance of the cycles of activity and experiences in the environment, suitable to the various stages of child development, destroys the conditions of normality because the child does not function in the manner which nature dictates, and the child’s development deviates from what is normal. This interference affects all succeeding stages of physical development. The interruption also interferes with the mental health of the child.
‘The interruption of cycles of activity produces certain inner conditions in the mind of the child which deprive him of self-confidence and neutralize his ability to finish what he has started. When a child is continually interrupted while fulfilling cycles of activity, the child is gradually losing the courage, the constancy and the determination necessary for achievement.
In later years he is charged with unsteadiness, want of determination or lack of perseverance. These defects are taken as characteristics of certain children. The fact is they are not so. They are the consequence of the interruptions of the child’s normal cycles of activities in earlier years.’
In a normally healthy and physically robust child the tendency is to be always on the move and the role of the parent and teacher is to provide an environment which promotes cycles of activity. If the child is continually interrupted he fails to acquire the habit of applying himself to purposeful ends; his courage is reduced and his self-esteem undermined.
Then, at a later stage the adults with him may say, ‘He starts many things but cannot finish them. As soon as he has started one thing he stops it and goes onto something else.’ What You Should Know About Your Child, Maria Montessori
The child is not to be blamed. Nature is not to be blamed. The urge and impulse to perform cycles of activity, naturally in the child, were obstructed and repressed. The consequence is the hyperactivity.
Today, many mental health difficulties such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dementia and depression can be ameliorated or improved by interesting the mind with work or activity which puts the mind back in relation to reality. Since the deviation is due to detachment from reality the idea is to ‘hook it back’ as it were to reality again.
The principle is: the mind should be connected to reality and that such a connection is the fundamental basis not only for mental health but also mental development. False imaginations of fancies and fantasies (e.g. virtual worlds) give rise to false imaginations. As educators we must foster the coordinated movement of each child’s body and mind in contact with reality.
"Each period (of child development) is basically different from the others; nevertheless, each lays the foundation for the one following it. To develop normally in the second period a person must have developed well in the first. In the same way the caterpillar and the butterfly are two creatures very different to look at, and in the way they behave, yet the beauty of the butterfly comes from its life in the larval form, and not through any efforts it may make to imitate another butterfly." Dr Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind
For further information please telephone Wendy Fidler: +44 208 305 2202 or +44 7710 433 994.
The Keys to Mental Health and Growth:
Dr Maria Montessori described children’s uninterrupted experiences with the prepared learning environment as ‘cycles of activity’. The basic principle is that the child’s mind should grip reality and establish contacts with reality suitable to every stage of development. Personal experiences carried out on reality form real knowledge. Such experiences are not only the basis of mental growth but also of mental health.
Failure to provide facilities for the performance of the cycles of activity and experiences in the environment, suitable to the various stages of child development, destroys the conditions of normality because the child does not function in the manner which nature dictates, and the child’s development deviates from what is normal. This interference affects all succeeding stages of physical development. The interruption also interferes with the mental health of the child.
‘The interruption of cycles of activity produces certain inner conditions in the mind of the child which deprive him of self-confidence and neutralize his ability to finish what he has started. When a child is continually interrupted while fulfilling cycles of activity, the child is gradually losing the courage, the constancy and the determination necessary for achievement.
In later years he is charged with unsteadiness, want of determination or lack of perseverance. These defects are taken as characteristics of certain children. The fact is they are not so. They are the consequence of the interruptions of the child’s normal cycles of activities in earlier years.’
In a normally healthy and physically robust child the tendency is to be always on the move and the role of the parent and teacher is to provide an environment which promotes cycles of activity. If the child is continually interrupted he fails to acquire the habit of applying himself to purposeful ends; his courage is reduced and his self-esteem undermined.
Then, at a later stage the adults with him may say, ‘He starts many things but cannot finish them. As soon as he has started one thing he stops it and goes onto something else.’ What You Should Know About Your Child, Maria Montessori
The child is not to be blamed. Nature is not to be blamed. The urge and impulse to perform cycles of activity, naturally in the child, were obstructed and repressed. The consequence is the hyperactivity.
Today, many mental health difficulties such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dementia and depression can be ameliorated or improved by interesting the mind with work or activity which puts the mind back in relation to reality. Since the deviation is due to detachment from reality the idea is to ‘hook it back’ as it were to reality again.
The principle is: the mind should be connected to reality and that such a connection is the fundamental basis not only for mental health but also mental development. False imaginations of fancies and fantasies (e.g. virtual worlds) give rise to false imaginations. As educators we must foster the coordinated movement of each child’s body and mind in contact with reality.
"Each period (of child development) is basically different from the others; nevertheless, each lays the foundation for the one following it. To develop normally in the second period a person must have developed well in the first. In the same way the caterpillar and the butterfly are two creatures very different to look at, and in the way they behave, yet the beauty of the butterfly comes from its life in the larval form, and not through any efforts it may make to imitate another butterfly." Dr Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind
For further information please telephone Wendy Fidler: +44 208 305 2202 or +44 7710 433 994.
