Montessori and asd

[rosiejoy]

Just wondering how suitable a Montessori preschool would be for a child with asd.

Anybody any experiences they can share? thanks

Not sure. I find Montessori methods very puzzling, since so much of it is self-directed and open-ended, and I like definite rules and definite structure. So much depends on the staff and whether they are prepared to adapt a little, I think?

Have no direct experience and of course every child is different (even those with the same diagnosis) but I can't imagine that it would be such a happy marriage with the lack of obvious structure that montessori seems to adopt.

I know a bit about this

DS1 and ds2 attended a Montessori; ds1 has ASD, and I did some work on it for college.

Montessori was developed for kids with SN or deprived backgrounds back in the twenties. It does have quite a lot of structure just handled in a different way- for exmaple it is very child led, but the teacher is trained to know when to intervene. Self help skills are valued (so getting your own cup etc), and boundaries are taught- so a montessori toy might be palced on a mat and the child learns themselves that the mat is the boundary for the toy play; useful really.

Now, pure Montessori si quite rare in the UKand it tends to be mixed with quite a lot of modern thought etc so I woudl always say just go and get a feel. the teahcer who ran ours was a SENCO and used to foster teens with SN to get them used to life skills and was fabulous and probably more directly locving than is usual with Montessori: nevertheless she was a childcare dream come true and fantastic.

Children are also taught not to invade each other's toy spaces which could be very reassuring for an ASD child.

www.praxiseducationcenter.com/pdf/Montessori-aSpecialEdBBC5B.pdf

Seems to a reasonable bit of info about the two things.

My ds3 (asd) attended a montessori and really benefited from it. However I think it really does depend on the child and and teachers too. There was another asd child who was quite disruptive - in the end his mum pulled him out and sent him to another nurser.

Thankyou all.

I think I really need to go and look round then. My gut feeling is really against sending ds the the Montessori preschool near us and I don't really know why. Trying to stay open minded, but I'm just concerned about the teacher being out of their depth and doing more harm than good. Am I being paranoid?

I think SanctiMA really hit the nail on the head for me: yes a true Montessori environment is really positive for an Aspergers child, but difficult to find.

My child was very happy at a Montessori (no toys, structured but child led). Not diagnosed as ASD but showing a lot of ASD traits. One of the interesting things was that they weren't "allowed" to interrupt him if he was playing with something for a very long time in a slightly obsessional way (ie: pretending a line of bricks was a train rather than making them into a pile as he was "meant" to)They commented on how they would have liked to steer him away onto other activities, but that is not the Montessori ethos. Of course they also did Art, stories, drama all sorts of things.
He loved it, and was always very calm and focused there. I think the quiet order of the place was perfect for him, and he felt very free.
There were noisy, highly active children who weren't happy at all there conversely, I always thought it didn't suit some children who just needed to run around and jump up and down.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. They were also very good at judging what he could and couldn't do re: holding a pen etc, and never forcing anything on him he wasn't ready for. But giving him responsibility for little tasks, which he loved too.

It really depends on the school. My dd2 did very well at her Montessori nursery and school until she was 5. Then she went to a progressive school, then another Montessori school in the US which I felt wasn't very Montessori-like at all and had a very academic bent which was a disaster.

If the Montessori preschool is good, they will have well structured activities and well trained teachers. It's not really open-ended - children can choose, but from a range of 'good' activities.

In theory, Montessori should be good for children with special needs and Montessori teachers should have some training in dealing with them, but you would probably need to talk to the teachers and view the preschool yourself to make a decision.

Have name-changed, it's rosiejoy...

Ds not been dx or anything yet, but his behaviour is strikingly pointing towards asd.

He is a very lively, physical chap (his sensory issues are under-responsive rather than over-sensitive). So he needs lots of space to be free to run around, he is very clumsy, and would struggle to be quiet when told and sit still for long periods.

I agree that I really need to have a look round and consider each setting on its own merits.