Families

We are so glad you are here! This website is being built to advocate for and support an expansion of educational inclusion of children with more diverse abilities and needs. We believe Montessori education is the ideal foundation for inclusion because it is a medically-conceived developmental approach that was born out of Special Education. The design of Montessori education makes it amenable to integrated medical-educational approaches that are therapeutic and habilitative. With the Montessori approach to education, there is the potential for inclusion that is not just about creating access to education that was designed for children with typical development. With collaboration among educators, medical specialists, and families/caregivers, we can create holistic inclusion programs. These are programs that embody a comprehensive developmental approach to addressing the root causes of social, emotional, physiological and cognitive challenges in order to optimize a child’s growth and development through infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

• If you are a parent, guardian or family member of a child who has a disability, or learning difference, or who just cannot succeed in a traditional education setting, then this portal is for you.
• If you are a person who has learning differences or who is differently-abled and you want to learn about more beneficial and supportive educational options, then this portal is for you.
• If you are an advocate for children with challenges and their families, you need to learn about the developmental potential of Montessori-based inclusion so that you can advocate for this supportive educational option, then this portal is for you.

Remember, significant advances in the betterment of the lives of people with disabilities come from advocacy by individuals and families, like yourselves, who envision and demand better treatment, better conditions, better services from their schools, their communities, their societies and their governments.
The Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion (MMPI) demands and supports collaboration between medical and educational institutions in order to pave a wider road to inclusion for the lifespan, because this is the essential path to an inclusive society and an inclusive world.

Did you know that Dr. Montessori was one of the very first international advocates for the right to education for children with disabilities? In 1897, she spoke at an international teachers’ congress in Turin, Italy, about the developmental need for education by even the most disabled children; this idea was revolutionary at that time, and Montessori received international acclaim for her vision of education as a right for all children.

At that time, the late 1800’s, Dr. Montessori intuited that the absolute separation between the medical and educational disciplines and institutions was detrimental to children with disabilities and envisioned “a joint labour of physician and teacher” which would lead to the betterment of all mankind. She called her work, Scientific Pedagogy, because her approach to education utilized the Scientific Method to get to know a child’s needs and it was based in the science of human development. By reconnecting Montessori’s work with current medical science, we step into the future of inclusion: Scientific and Medical Pedagogy. Medical Pedagogy integrates the developmental and cognitive sciences within an educational framework to provide pathways for children who are differently-abled to be able to develop to their potential. Implementing Medical Pedagogy provides the key to successful and developmental inclusion within a Montessori Community.

Parents, families and advocates are a vital component in a child’s Resource Team to support success in an inclusive school environment.

Our names are Catherine Massie and Barbara Luborsky and we have both been advocating for children experiencing challenges for more than 2 decades. We are dedicated to the right of all children to be included and to designing inclusion that is diagnostic, therapeutic and habilitative. Through the formation of an international medical-educational partnership organization and website, MMPI, we are providing a way for educators, medical practitioners, families and advocates to work together and share information and resources to advance inclusion. We invite you to join us and help us!

The MMPI website is opening with a selection of resources for you which, we believe, will be of interest to you. Our vision for this inclusion website, however, is that Montessori educators, medical providers, families and advocates across the globe will contribute many insights, successful practices, and a wealth of resources to support inclusion. We are a growing resource center at this time.
Begin exploring our site NOW and here is what you will find:

• Grand Opening Showcase Feature: Visit our Inclusion Program Showcase to find perhaps the earliest scientific study of Montessori education for children with disabilities.
• Resources of interest: Find current articles and research in Hot Topics, introduce yourself to other families, self-advocates and family advocates through our Families & Individuals Forum, and read a variety of articles about Special Education, Montessori Education, supporting children with particular disabilities or challenges, and the benefits of inclusion. More resources will be added each month.
• Find out how you can get involved NOW in advocacy, capacity-building, and supporting Montessori programs that are including more diverse populations of children.

As this website resource center grows over time, you will find important information that you need to know about a wide range of developmental and learning challenges, information about how to advocate for your child’s needs in school settings, information about how to best help your child at home, information about the barriers created by the lack of integration between medical and educational institutions and straight talk about what this means for the services your child receives.

What kind of challenges does your child struggle with at home? At school?
What do you need to know about Montessori education for inclusion?
What kinds of resources would you find helpful?

• Parent Education on child development, the benefits of inclusion, or Montessori education for inclusion;
• Parent Education by medical specialists—Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, Behavior Specialists, Trauma Therapists, other—on typical development and early signs for beneficial interventions;
• The importance of early identification, differential diagnosis and early intervention;
• Parent Support and Empowerment Groups;
• What to do when YOU are living in overwhelm;
• Creating a Montessori-based home environment to help your child with special needs;
• Other?