Inclusive Education

What is the Inclusive Education Course?

This supplemental training course for AMI diploma holders was created to empower Montessori teachers with unique strategies to serve children who have behavioral, learning, and physical differences. The intense 7-week program (3 1/2 weeks of onsite study during two summers with an interim year of guided practice) is a dynamic collaboration between AMI trainers and medical doctors, integrating the most current medical research on special needs with sound AMI pedagogical practices. Our main focus is on children from birth to 12 years.

The AMI Inclusive Education Course is exclusively available at The Montessori Institute of San Diego. We encourage early application as demand is high and space is limited.

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Admission Requirements

We are thrilled to announce that this continuing education course is now open to all Montessori diploma holders.  Students who do not hold an AMI diploma will attend an additional 3-day introduction called Montessori Fundamentals.  Several years of teaching experience is helpful, but not mandatory.  If you do not hold a Montessori diploma and would like to participate, please contact the office to discuss auditing.

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Become a Resource for Your School!

Montessori schools are facing unprecedented challenges as they attempt to serve a wide swath of children with an ever-expanding range of abilities.  Even though the Montessori curriculum was originally designed for disadvantaged “street children” in Italy, Montessori soon shifted her focus to creating an ideal educational environment for the average child, and that was her main emphasis throughout her life.

As Montessori classrooms increasingly welcome more and more children whose abilities lie outside the traditional range, it has become necessary to revisit the Montessori materials and practices with these special children in mind, and to innovate intelligently in the tradition of Montessori’s original perspective as both doctor and educator.

Today, school administrators often find themselves looking to outside professionals to assist with these special cases. The AMI Inclusive Education Course now offers your school the opportunity to train at least one staff member in the art and science of serving this specific population, and therefore to retain a valuable in-house consultant.

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Distinguished Faculty from Medicine and Education

Students in this program will have access to an impressive array of highly qualified faculty from the fields of education, medicine, psychology, and psychiatry.

Faculty

  • Silvia Dubovoy, Ph.D. (AMI Trainer)
  • Annabeth Jensen, M.Ed. (AMI Consultant)

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Sample Lecture Topics

  • History of Special Education from Itard and Seguin to the present:  Discover where Montessori took her original ideas from and how new neurological findings support her work today.

  • How focusing on early intervention can bring out the intrinsic worth of every child.

  • How events from conception to the first three years of life affect a child’s physical, emotional, and psychological relationship to learning.

  • Theories of learning differences: Locke, Rousseau,  Itard, Seguin, Kephart, Luria, Vigotzky, Dewey, Gardener, James, and others

  • Overview of how learning differences are diagnosed by medical professionals: types of learning assessments and psychological evaluations; reliability and validity of tests

  • Discussion of video footage  and case studies

  • Overview of ADD, ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome

  • Sensory, movement, and language pathologies; emotional regulation; stress response

  • Overview of auditory and visual impairments

  • Gifted children

  • The technological revolution and its consequences: attention, physical development, communication styles, implications for human progress

  • Children at risk: poor communities, orphanages, foster homes

  • Approaching children in hospitals for short and long-term periods: helpful materials; how to talk with nurses, staff, and parents

  • Family relations: denial; rights of parents; support available from institutions and government agencies; identification, resources, and referrals

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AMI Certificate of Completion

Students who satisfy the following requirements will be issued an AMI Certificate of Completion:

  1. At least 90% attendance
  2. Inclusive Education Album
  3. 8-10 page case study paper on a child in a Montessori environment with special needs.
  4. 15-page written final reflection

20 Continuing Education Units through Loyola University Maryland
Students who complete the AMI Inclusive Education Course are eligible for 200 hours or 20 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through Loyola University Maryland.  More detail here – download PDF.

 

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RECENT COURSE:

Inclusive Education (2-summers) 2018-2019
Montessori Fundamentals* June 20 – June 22, 2018 (3 days), 8:00am – 4:00pm
June 25 – July 13, 2018 (3 weeks)
June 24 – July 17, 2019 (3.5 weeks)
Monday-Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm

*Students who hold an AMI Diploma are exempt from Montessori Fundamentals.

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