The Montessori Method - Support for Infants and Their Families

Cristel Ruiz writes the latest installment of Montessori Method.  Ms. Ruiz is a Toddler Guide at BGMS.  Sponsored by BGMS, she received her Assistants to Infancy diploma at the AMI teacher training center in Dallas, Montessori Institute of North Texas.  She is mother of three children at BGMS, in Upper Elementary, Lower Elementary, and Parent-Infant Series.

“All that we ourselves are has been made by the child, by the child we were in the first two years of our lives.” –Maria Montessori¹

With the beginning of the Parent-Infant Series, many questions have surfaced as to its purpose, its efficacy, and its usefulness to the families of today.  A little background on the idea may begin the discussion appropriately: 

Though Maria Montessori's work with children from 3 to 12 years of age garnered more public recognition, the application of her theories to children from birth to 3 began around 1946 in collaboration with Adele Costa Gnocchi, a Primary Montessori Guide in Rome, Italy. Maria Montessori realized after observing children of all ages that the first weeks and months of life were vitally important to the child’s future development, both physically and psychologically.  After much deliberation, Montessori and Costa Gnocchi tried first to offer Primary materials in the Primary environment to children from 1 ½ to 3 years of age.  They soon realized, however, that the youngest children required an environment and materials specifically suited to meet their rapidly developing skills and smaller bodies.  Throughout the next two years, observations of the youngest children bred new ideas for materials that were developed and implemented to create the ideal environment for children under 3.  This environment was originally called the Nido, or “nest” in Italian, for non-walking infants, and the Infant Community for children who were walking.

With the creation of this ideal environment came the need for uniquely trained teachers, “guides,” who were specially qualified to work with expectant families, newborns, and these children under 3 years of age.  The “Assistants to Infancy” guides have evolved through the years from initially being a live-in assistant to the child and family to, in modern times, guiding specially prepared environments in which the child can move freely within limits and grow in independence while drawing from the environment what he or she needs to develop fully and confidently.²

Several theoretical aspects contribute to the uniqueness of the ideas that Montessori developed for the child under three.  The human infant is born, developmentally, much less mature than the offspring of other mammals.  Maria Montessori theorized that this was not only due to the physical aspects of the upright human body, but also because the human infant must learn to be human through observing the human beings around him or her during the second or external “gestation” from birth to around nine months of age.  Far from the instinctual behaviors of other mammals which are present at their birth, human infants adopt the behaviors modeled by the people in their environments through observation, imitation, and repetition over the course of many months and years. 

During the first three years of life, through the amazing abilities of the unconscious Absorbent Mind, the child takes in every sight, sound, taste, and feel from her interactions with the environment and these sensory images become an indelible part of the child’s brain.  The child literally takes in every detail of the environment around her in totality and without any extra effort on her part.  This experience allows the child to adapt to the culture of the world around her and become the child of her particular time and place in history.  These sensory images also create the basis for the child’s acquisition of voluntary movement, the child’s acquisition of language, the child’s ability to orient herself in the world around her, and the child’s preliminary ability to classify what she has seen.³

With all that said, one begins to wonder what the child under three truly needs to develop fully and happily.  While every aspect cannot be explored here, several key concepts blend together to assist the child in developing well.  Among other things, beginning at birth, the child must create a loving, secure and healthy attachment to his mother or another adult dedicated to his care; the child requires an environment suitable for him, and from which he will glean his ideas of beauty, order, consistency, and safety, both physical and psychological; the child desires to communicate and participate in communication with those around him; and, most of all, the child needs the opportunity to grow in independence in order to develop the self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-esteem which will carry him throughout his life.  Is this a tall order for the parents of a child under three?  Possibly.  But, exploring these concepts more fully will display their importance and also the ways in which the Parent-Infant environment can help families offer these experiences to young children.

Attachment and separation are inherent in all human relationships.  The foundation for healthy, future relationships begins with the mother/child bond following the child’s birth.  By attaching fully and completely to the mother early in life, the child will be able to fully separate from the mother in order to explore his environment later in the first year, knowing that the mother is still supporting him from afar.  The mother is the child’s link to the outside world, and her loving, responsive attention to the child’s needs helps the child feel safe, secure, and that the world is a place in which he can trust and in which he will be cared for.  Many different rituals and time frames exist around the world during which this bonding is encouraged to occur; Maria Montessori saw the first 6 to 8 weeks of life as the vital time during which the mother and immediate family should tend exclusively to the needs of the newborn in order to encourage a deep sense of attachment.⁴  After that, the mother introduces the child to the world outside of the home slowly and carefully, responding sensitively to the infant’s ability to take in and process the new information and experiences.  

By inviting both parent and child into the Parent-Infant Environment, the mother continues to be the child’s sense of support and consistency as he explores an environment outside of his home.  Instead of being secured in a stroller or carrier and being toted along on adult-led errands, the child is given a place away from home which is built specifically to allow for freedom of movement, to encourage manipulation and safe exploration, and to offer different educational experiences than those generally available to small children in modern society.  Though educating a child beginning at 2 months of age may sound interesting, Montessori believed, “that the first two years are the most important in the whole span of human life.  The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.  From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.”⁵  Far from education in the traditional sense, the Parent-Infant Series offers a collaborative means for parents and other adults to discover the art of observation in order to respond to the child’s true, rather than perceived, needs.  When the mother is able to truly see and respond to what the child needs, giving them the materials and experiences at the appropriate times aids in optimal development and reaffirms for the child that the mother supports his needs, both physically and psychologically.

As the child begins to explore the world around him, first with his senses and then with his newly mobile body, he requires consistency, security, and order because, as Maria Montessori said, “if what we have to do is to help man’s mental life, then the first lesson we must learn is that the tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surroundings.  Here it has to locate itself, and build itself up from what it takes in.”⁶  The child incarnates, or takes in, the external order of the environment to build up within himself his internal order.  By creating an external environment filled with natural beauty, consistent placement of objects, consistent routines and events, and consistent, calm emotional undertones, the child learns that the environment around him is one in which he can enjoy the beauty of the natural world and anticipate where he may find the things he needs and to where they may be returned.  The child feels comforted by consistent routines because he can anticipate what comes next and what will occur at that time.  The child feels safe because he knows that the adults in the environment will consistently treat him with loving respect and value his presence in and contributions to the environment.  While home may be a loving haven for the young child, much of modern society is neither consistent, secure, nor orderly, especially in the eyes of a small child.  The Parent-Infant environment offers a carefully prepared environment away from home in which the child may feel secure, safe, and valued by his parent and the other adults and children in the environment.  The Parent-Infant environment offers a gentle introduction for the youngest children to the world outside of home.

“Especially at the beginning of life must we, therefore, make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can, ”⁷ in order to fulfill the child’s need for consistency, security, and order.  The young child, from birth, can move her body and daily increases her capability to do so when given the space to move; this movement is the child’s basis for interacting with the environment around her.  Rather than prevent this natural movement with confining clothing, cribs, playpens, exersaucers, or other obstacles to the child’s growth, the Parent-Infant environment offers a safe and interesting environment in which to scoot, roll, sit, crawl, and walk, as well as materials, large and small, designed specially to encourage the further development of gross and fine motor skills.  From the movement mat, low mirror, and low shelf for children who are laying still or rolling to the ball tracker which encourages standing (as well as pre-reading visual tracking skills) to the walk up, walk down stairs for the children who are refining their walking abilities, the Parent-Infant environment contains the Montessori materials pertinent to the child from 2 months to 18 months of age.  The materials encourage the child to actively engage with the environment and offer the child freedom within limits, which also aids in the child’s burgeoning development of inner discipline.

Dr. Lise Eliot, in What’s Going on in There? reinforced Montessori’s original theories of the sensitive period for language acquisition and the need for a rich language environment (as discussed in chapter 12 of The Absorbent Mind) when she noted, “the fact that all children learn language in a very similar way and on a very similar schedule shows just how deeply rooted it is in our biological makeup.  We are born with a brain primed for language-learning.  As long as it is exposed at the right time, a child’s linguistic skills will inevitably flower on schedule; she will learn to talk (or sign) fluently, memorizing an astonishing number of words and mastering every rule of spoken grammar, all before the age of four.”⁸  In order to develop language naturally, a child must possess a healthy hearing apparatus, a healthy vocal apparatus, a rich language environment, and a desire to speak.⁹  Once the physical aspects of the equation are tested, the psychological aspects must be supported.  Eye contact and polite speech and tone of voice create a respectful dialogue with even the youngest child. Narrating actions, singing songs, and discussing the events of the day with an infant can begin even before birth.  Encouraging the development of communication in the very young child in the pre-linguistic phase (before spoken language begins) occurs daily in the Parent-Infant environment: respectful conversations centered around the aspects of the morning’s routine occur within every child-parent couple.  (An infant-adult conversation may be as simple as the adult saying, “I am moving your left foot to pull up the heel of your sock,” and the child chooses to respond by nodding her head or vocalizing, helping to move her foot into the sock, or watching the adult’s mouth intently while he speaks.)  Acknowledging the child’s need for communication through eye contact, respectful conversations, as well as allowing time for the child to respond, either physically or verbally, creates a strong base for language development.  Consistent naming of objects, use of creative language in poems, songs, and rhymes, and reading, as well as the use of specially prepared language materials, contribute to the further development of language in the very young child in the Parent-Infant Series rich language environment.

Maria Montessori believed that the best thing an adult can do for a child is to help them learn to do things for themselves.  She felt that by helping a child become independent, the adults could step back and allow the child to take appropriate ownership of the environments as well as of their own bodies.  The adults are available for guidance and assistance, as well as offering new experiences and lessons, but the child is able to help himself.  Learning to do for oneself is a process throughout which the adults act as models and guides, assisting only when necessary; this begins far earlier than one might think.  A child who has been assisted in learning to care for their person and to care for their environment gains a different relationship and level of confidence than the child who must depend on another person to do these things for them.  Learning to dress and undress, to wipe one’s nose, to brush one’s teeth, to prepare and serve one’s own snack or meal, to toilet unaided, and to clean up after one’s self gives the young child a mastery over their own body and a strong feeling of self-reliance.  The child can function well even without the mother nearby because he can care for his own person.  Being able to return a basket of work to its shelf, water an indoor or outdoor plant, use a hand broom and dust pan to clean dirt from the floor, and put dishes on the dish cart after a snack is complete gives the child a feeling of ownership and mastery over their environment and a strong feeling of self-confidence.  The healthy self-esteem that stems from these feelings of self-reliance and self-confidence develops naturally through the child’s interactions with the environment and doesn’t require an artificial, adult-contrived activity; the child knows his own strengths and needs by having ownership of his body and his environment—this stands true for the 3- to 6-year-old child and true for the child from birth to 3 years.   

As each of the above-mentioned aspects of development is important to the young child, the overarching goal of helping the child to grow towards functioning independently is supported by the Parent-Infant environment.  The furnishings of tiny chairs and low tables for work time and single or group meals, the open shelves with materials available for the child to choose, the movement mat with low mirror, the kiosk with bars on which to pull up, the walk-up and walk-down stairs, and the toddler-sized toilet all call out to the child to be used; a visible excitement comes over the face of a child who enters the room for the first time.  Where else is every furnishing sized correctly for their small bodies?

The psychological aspects of the environment, just as important as the physical ones, also support the child’s growth towards independence.  Through observation, the adults are able to realize that the young child is capable of many things far earlier than conventional wisdom might think.  The child of 12 months is able to climb onto the stool to reach the sink and wash his hands, all with minimal, if any, adult assistance.  The infant of 8 months is able to use her spoon to eat breakfast from a ceramic bowl on a linen table cloth, all with minimal, if any, adult assistance.  The art of observation learned and utilized within the Parent-Infant Environment allows the adults to remove the obstacles to their child’s growth towards independence, especially if one of those obstacles is too much help from the adult.  Often, this adult awareness of the child’s true abilities is the biggest step necessary for the very young child to progress steadily on their path of development.

A complex and multi-faceted concept led Maria Montessori to develop the ideal environment to support children from birth to three years of age, and a long and thoughtful journey led to the Barbara Gordon Montessori School’s development of its Parent-Infant Series.  To aid the child, with the supportive parent close at hand, in exploring the environment away from home, in communicating with an ever-widening network of caring children and adults, and in developing the self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-esteem that come naturally with growing independence, the Parent-Infant Series offers an ideal start to children and their parents. 

¹ Montessori, Maria.  The Absorbent Mind.  New York: Owl Books, 1995.  Ch. 1 “The Child’s Part in World Reconstruction.” 6.

² Vidales, Maria Teresa.  AMI Director of Training for Assistants to Infancy.  Montessori Institute of North Texas.  Unpublished Lecture on “The History of Assistants to Infancy.” 14 June 2007.

³Vidales, Maria Teresa.  AMI Director of Training for Assistants to Infancy.  Montessori Institute of North Texas.  Unpublished Lecture on “The Absorbent Mind.” 25 June 2007.

⁴ Vidales, Maria Teresa.  AMI Director of Training for Assistants to Infancy.  Montessori Institute of North Texas.  Unpublished Lecture on “The Psychic Embryo.” 14 July 2008.

⁵ Montessori, Maria.  The Absorbent Mind.  New York: Owl Books, 1995.  Ch. 1 “The Child’s Part in World Reconstruction.” 4.

⁶ Montessori, Maria.  The Absorbent Mind.  New York: Owl Books, 1995.  Ch. 9 “The First Days of Life.” 97.

⁷ Montessori, Maria.  The Absorbent Mind.  New York: Owl Books, 1995.  Ch. 9 “The First Days of Life.” 97.

⁸ Eliot, Lise. What’s Going on In There?  New York: Bantam Books, 1999.  Ch. 14 “Language and the Developing Brain.” 376-377.

⁹ Vidales, Maria Teresa.  AMI Director of Training for Assistants to Infancy.  Montessori Institute of North Texas.  Unpublished Lecture on “Language.” 19 June 2008.