Rochester, New York
About the Special Education Course
Association Montessori Internationale
Inclusive Education Course
Eight-Weeks over Two Summers
August of 2012 and August of 2013 at the Montessori Institute of San Diego
For more information and registration for the course, go to www.misdami.org
The Need:
- Many factors can interfere with a child’s growth and development. These can include poverty, civil unrest, limited community resources, and toxic environments. In addition, some children may have inherent conditions — medical, neuropsychiatric, or emotional — which can interfere with normal interaction with their world.
- For various reasons, some known and others not fully understood, there appears to be an increasing number of children and adolescents being identified with developmental and emotional struggles.
- Some children, despite multiple school-based supports and clinical interventions, can experience difficulty in the educational setting.
The Call for Assistance:
- Montessori teachers from around the world have reported that children today seem to be different — they present with behaviors and learning habits that appear to interfere with their normalization in the Montessori classroom. Some of these children manifest behaviors which include aggression, lack of self-control, hyperactivity, sensorial integration problems, delayed language development, poor coordination, and/or impairment in relating to their environment.
- Despite working diligently to help such children, teachers continue to report that they are not always being successful. Accordingly, educators have asked for help from Montessori leaders and trainers. In particular, they have sought assistance in helping the special-needs child in his/her development, when it seems the typical Montessori environment does not answer the needs of all the child.
The Course:
- The eight-week, two-summer course would address the above issues and offer practical information and strategies to help teachers apply Montessori principals – specifically for children with special needs. A key element of such a course is to follow Dr. Montessori’s mandate to know and discover the child — so as to better identify and provide what the special-needs child requires. The course will recognize the expertise of teachers, and build upon their comprehensive Montessori training experience.
- Accordingly, the Montessori principles to be reviewed would include: accentuate the positive, look to the child, know he/she has the right to develop to his/her best potential, and preserve the child’s spirit. In brief, the course will fully incorporate Montessori as an Aid to Life.
- The course will emphasize the philosophy — role of the adult and the prepared environment — assisting the Montessori educator to respond to each individual child who has been experiencing barriers to development.
- In the medical and educational professions, there are many ideas, recommendations, applications, and philosophies that currently exist to assist special-needs children. However, some of the approaches are not compatible with Montessori theory and practice. The course will help the educator analyze various approaches and then determine if they are compatible and acceptable, according to Montessori standards.
Key Elements:
- The special education course will review historical and current clinical understanding and diagnoses of medical, neuro-developmental, psychosocial, and emotional conditions in children and adolescents.
- While the educator should have an appreciation of such conditions, clinical presentations will be comprehensive, yet focusing on the key elements needed by the Montessori-trained teacher. In addition, the steps necessary in developing effective and collegial relationships between the educational and medical professionals will be presented.
- Montessori’s understanding of the child promotes a solid and empathic understanding of the child’s experience.
- Following the review of the clinical presentation and impact of conditions affecting children, empathetic and effective strategies will be presented and discussed.
- A key goal of the course would be to provide the Montessori teacher with additional training and resources to assist the child in growing and developing a strong sense of self, despite emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties.
We would like to hear from you. Please complete and send us the form below if you want more information about the course and/or would like to be considered as a candidate for the course.
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