Tier 3 Montessori

11/18/2025

Tonight! 🎉

Montessori in the public sector raises real questions: Can authentic Montessori be implemented with integrity in public schools? What conditions matter most? What compromises are necessary, if any?

Join us live tomorrow for Montessori Conversations featuring AMI 3-6 Trainer Caroline Clark, M.Ed. with Public Montessori Practitioner Liliana Pinzon. Together they will explore the realities, barriers, opportunities, and lessons from public-sector Montessori implementation.

Nov 18 | 6–8 PM CT | Live on Zoom
Registration: $20 (includes 2 PD hours)

Register: https://montessori-mint.org/montessori-conversations

11/18/2025

🎉🎉🎉

Some of y’all have turned “ABA” into a boogeyman you can blame for everything from hurt feelings to… electric shock devices “stronger than police tasers.” Pure disinformation and that needs to stop.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are over here actually trying to help our kids live safer, happier lives.

ABA is not one monolithic thing.
It’s not 1980 anymore.
And the idea that modern ABA is just “camouflaging” or “self-erasure” might fit a viral tweet, but it doesn’t match the reality for kids like my son, kids who need help not running into traffic, not swallowing screws, not bolting from school, not hurting themselves.
That’s not “masking.” That’s SAFETY!

Are there bad providers? Yes.
Are there outdated practices that should never be used again? Absolutely.
But acting like the entire field is torture is just misinformation dressed up as advocacy.

My son doesn’t need to be “normalized.”
But he needs support. He needs communication. That’s why he learned to use an AAC device in ABA. ABA doesn’t suppress stims unless they’re self-injurious. No one is going to stop a child from flapping their hands. That’s not ABA.

If your only experience with ABA is TikTok horror stories, maybe at least have the guts to admit you’re not an expert on every autistic experience. Especially the ones that don’t look like yours.

Families like mine are fighting to keep their kids safe. Alive. And ABA helps.

[Attaching some of those comments in the comments.]

11/17/2025

🎯💯

11/17/2025

Hello, Families!

As our waitlist continues to grow, it looks like we may be accepting some BCBS plans again for behavioral health services starting January 1, 2026 🎉

Let's hope we can serve more families anyway! 🤞
The good news is this will open up more availability for many other small and independent providers such as myself, so keep searching!

Email they sent out today:
"Effective Jan. 1, 2026, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas rather than Magellan Healthcare® will administer behavioral health benefits for our members with Blue Advantage HMOSM and MyBlue HealthSM."

Call now to connect with business.

11/15/2025

🚩 it’s a huge red flag warning if your child’s ABA company is requiring 40 hours per week for every child.

Families here know we don’t push for more hours because our entire goal is to help children adjust to new social settings and be able to access new learning in any domain - the skill of all skills!

* It’s true, some children do need 40 hours of early intervention skills training per week instead of, but not in addition to school, which is the same number of hours children are in public school per week anyway, but that was based on old research and practice from the 90s.

We now have current research (and in our own experience), that children can learn pivotal, life-changing, new skills, and can truly benefit from supplemental services in as little as 5-10 hours per week 🎉

“40 hours of ABA for everyone? Garbage.
20 hours as a minimum? Also garbage.”

Let’s be honest — business models should never define clinical care.
Individual needs, ethical decision-making, and effective support must always come first.

Families deserve individualized recommendations, not blanket prescriptions rooted in billing standards.
Our field is better than that — and it needs to start showing it.

11/15/2025

🎉 There’s NO need for tickets or points or tokens!

Stop wasting your valuable time and energy on those tactics and strategies that just get in the way of teaching real skills!

For Montessori teachers and assistants, I’m starting another round of Saturday social skills groups for you:

1 hour of assent-based training ✨
2 hours of live practice in session ✨

11/15/2025

11/14/2025

This goes for any field 🎉

Focus on what’s important - no time to tear each other down! 🫶

🎯💯 Every word!

11/09/2025

🎉 For anyone searching for a more flexible way to approach people of all ages with or without developmental differences, this training is it!

I see the benefit schools can offer their teachers through this inexpensive and succinct workshop because it provides the hands-on experience and practice of connecting with a person as a Prepared Adult in a Prepared Environment for the unique individuals they work with (rather than just the Materials & Presentations 😬)

* Behavior people, you will quickly see the parallels with our work in layman’s terms, without the use of aversive jargon. You can make side notes to align with the task list and ethics code as you follow along!

✨In only 2 short days, this workshop has been the bridge between our worlds of “Montessori” (what people think it is), and truly connecting with each and every learner to provide compassion and empathy in all interactions (the assent-based approaches we do here 🎉)

🥼 What this looks like in our clinical practice here:

The initial family intake interview is the same. Our collaborative process begins from our very first visit together 🫶

We start with learning about each family, and their interests, strengths, challenges, and barriers so we can adjust our environment to accommodate to the best of our abilities, and create a place to begin each day with joy! 🎉

Yes, we will be including this work and this research as a reference & resource in our staff training and onboarding along with our current practice model using the Constructional Approach, PFA/SBT, ACT/RFT, and Essential for Living!

Some of our discussion today in the training for Montessori for Aging and Dementia, from Margaret Jarrell:

“In so many cultures you show love and respect by doing things for elders. Without diminishing heritage, we can mention that your loved one could benefit from having more independence. It’s not just in long-term care. It’s also in day programs— all across care.

“The things about this that people miss? The shift in thinking to person-centered care is not just for our friends and parents. Everyone needs this, this culture of aging that is inclusive, life-affirming, and satisfying.

“We still want to give choices and honor those preferences, to allow people to make contributions to their community. This is a philosophy of life that supports well-being for all ages.”

Yes!

11/08/2025

🎉 🎉 🎉 My work here is done!
These sound so simple for oppositional or our PDA kids, but these really are the basic components of the training we try to teach parents and adults here.

I use them too at home and have seen amazing results!

* Make sure the #3 statements at the end aren’t in a threatening or competitive tone 😅

Let me know how it goes for you 🫶

11/05/2025

🫶 Can you relate?? 😅