Part 5 - Reflections on the Activities of Independent Discovery in the First Years of Life: What methodology?

[This article is by Grazia Honegger Fresco, you can read the first four parts in previous blogs]
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Part 5 (below)

The methodology commonly used in 0-3 Montessori trainings, both in Italy and abroad, is:

1. To establish what a child "is able to know how to do" at a given age and then train the child to be able to do this, this does not respect each individual child's own initiatives,
2. To continuously talk to the child, intervening and interrupting the child's activity, even when the child is very focused on what he or she is doing, which does not respect his or her concentration,
3. To prepare the environment with all of the objects that are theoretically correct and then adapt the child to the environment, with the goal to "normalize" the child. This denies the child of his or her potential discoveries, or personal discoveries, and is therefore an attempt to condition the child and develop prescribed abilities.

The method used by Maria Montessori, Adele Costa Gnocchi and their collaborators begins with specific observations of each individual child in order to respond to particular interests and personal needs. 

It is not done with the aim of stimulating the child but is, in fact, responding to the child. It is not done by giving unnecessary help which might be pushing the child to reach developmental milestones before their time. This kind of 'help' inhibits the development of independence and concentration and undermines the foundation of the sense of personal liberty.

We do not need pedagogical theories. What we really need are observational skills, especially in light of the latest scientific knowledge in brain development that looks at the effects of interactions between humans and the environment [epigenetics] and studies on the genome, ecology and comparative ethology.

Recently, we have seen the discovery of mirror neurons by Rizzolatti and his team. This research is remarkable, and confirming, on the scientific level, of Montessori's intuitions, which unfortunately are very often ignored or misunderstood these days.

To learn more about this you can look at the research done at the University of Parma in Italy, Fogassi et al. Mirror neurons and the simulations theory of mind reading. See also the writings of the neurophysiologist Alberto Oliverio, Geografia della mente, R. Cortina 2008 (Geography of the Mind) and Il cervello che impara/ Neuropedagogia dall'infanzi, Giunti 2015 (The brain that learns, the neuro pedagogy of childhood)

Misunderstandings

It is not true that the sensitive period of order begins around 18 months. This is a very serious mis-interpretation and is completely unfounded. Certainly, at 18 months the child is able to protest strongly against unwanted changes, but sensitivity to order, namely orientation, the gradual process of coming to know the mother (and the environment around the two of them) is an intensely active process and present from birth onwards, as are the sensory abilities of the child. Orientation and sensory awareness are like two compasses, particularly active in the first three months, a time when a baby is passed around to too many different people, seemingly with indifference to the need for stability. People who visit a newborn baby will handle him as they like: one day he is exposed to the bright light, the next day he is left in a dark room (“he is so small that he does not understand”). The child has an extreme need for stability and order during the first days; he needs to find the same sensations without radical changes and in principle – as Elinor Goldschmied argued as well – he should primarily have contact with only one person, his mother, and maximum with two.

For those of us who studied with Maria Montessori and Adele Costa Gnocchi, the 0-3 training verified the specific nature of each newborn beginning at birth, and believed the establishment of the first mother/infant bond to be incredibly important based on the observable, innate, self-regulating skills that we share in common with the young of every mammal. An extraordinary genetic and cerebral patrimony leads the newborn to immediately establish a relationship with his mother and to manifest from day one the need for continuity in the relationship with her, and for the habits that gradually are established between them.

And as for the two events of giving birth and being born – two individuals are involved and two experiences are lived – it is important to remember the fundamental contribution of Frédérick Leboyer (1918 -2017) to our understanding of the suffering inflicted on newborns, with his first book Birth Without Violence (Bompiani 1974) and, in his wake, the Italian Lorenzo Braibanti. And then there is Michel Odent, the author of a vast number of books in many different languages, including Primal Health, (Clairbooks 2002, ISBN I902636 33 3) and founder of the Primal Health Research Centre in London.

Despite all of this attention about the beginning of life, about the sensitivity with which every newborn must to be greeted – beginning with Montessori until today (see The Child in the Family – though poorly translated into English – and The Secret of Childhood) – nothing has changed in the standard practices. The recent World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, on birth, the care of the newborn, and breastfeeding – that we could have written ourselves - are completely ignored in the majority of the world's maternity wards, even in Europe and America.

The problem is that all of this is not central to Montessori courses today for 0-3, neither those given by AMI nor the ones in Italy offered by the Opera Nazionale Montessori, and this is a very serious concern. [Grazia is saying there is no guided experiential part in these courses for working with newborns and it is only presented theoretically]. The newborn and the child in the first year are completely undervalued: the initial phase of life is completely overlooked.

The result is that everywhere a 0-3 course is carried out, the practical focus is on children between 18 months and 3 years, and the result is a watered down Casa dei Bambini. In P. & L. Lillard's  Montessori from the start (Schocken Books, N.Y. 2003) and Angeline Lillard Stone's Montessori: the science behind the Genius (Oxford Institute 2005) there is not the slightest hint to the work of Montessori and Adele Costa Gnocchi on the child from birth to three). 

Fundamental differences became clear at the Prague Congress in 2017, where Karin Slabaugh, representing the work of Percorsi per Crescere and Centro Nascita Montessori, presented several films in the breakout session 'the Cosmic Task of 0-3' showing the creative activity of small children and illustrating the necessity, above all else, to give them a stable, protective and attentive relationship with a caregiver. Contrary to what we had understood, our school films were not screened during the Congress, and we were not able to share the novelty of these observations of the littlest ones that these school films demonstrated.

Grazia Honegger Fresco

The final part of this article will present Grazia's conclusions...