Tier 3 Montessori

10/29/2025

🎉🎉🎉 EFL + SBT! The most powerful combination we’ve seen so far!

Anyone who’s toured our place has seen the tree map showing the way we work here!

* Yes, I’m currently trying to figure out how I can get there for this 😅 Of course, I’ll let you know if I do!

We have an All Star cast already lined up as participants in our workshop! We are so excited to hear how they’re using event based teaching in their settings and how they’re inspiring others to do the same!

Our very own Miguel Avila will be there, as will Diana Vergara from . Ryan O’Donnell will be filming the entire course. We are thrilled that Laura Walsh Martino and Nicky Schneider are able to join us from far, far away. Canada and New Jersey are in the house! And traveling from great distances, too, will be Victoria Beaman and Carmen Vara-Napier who have been great friends to EFL and are brilliant at incorporating EFL with SBT and CABAS programming.

These are just a few of the guests we are excited to host and hope you all have the opportunity to connect with people from all over North America.

Link to register.
https://www.efltraining.com/event-details/event-based-teaching-live-workshop

Get your tickets before they’re gone! We don’t expect for them to last long!

10/19/2025

10/14/2025

💯🎯 PBIS is not behavior analysis, it is another canned curriculum no one should buy into. Sure, it sounds nice - “positive,” and based on a tiny sliver of something someone read once in a behavioral article but REAL behavior analysis, just like real Montessori, follows each and every person.

This is what makes our ABA and behavioral approaches here so different -

We DO begin with joy.
We DO prioritize every person’s assent and dignity.

Yes, those are choices, and they are free choices; not forced choices of “this or that,” and no token boards for earning up stuff (no, we’re not your local cafe or sandwich shop! 🥪)

Schools, it’s time to get on board with true assent-based behavioral approaches! 🎉














“Joy Shouldn’t Be Conditional
One of the most insidious parts of PBIS is that it teaches children that joy is something you must earn. Whether the prize is extra art time, helping the teacher, or a simple sticker, the underlying message is the same: you are only worthy of happiness if you behave the way we demand.
But children deserve joy because they are human. They deserve to play, to rest, to be celebrated; not because they checked enough boxes, but because joy and belonging are basic human needs.
When we tie joy to tokens, we teach kids that their humanity has to be negotiated.”

When I was a little girl, I didn't speak until I was four years old. I remember the way adults looked at me—like I was broken, like my silence defined me. They didn't see the potential bubbling beneath, only the ways I failed to fit the mold. That early experience taught me something I carry into ...

10/13/2025

This is what important info for any family who thinks their child may have the “Persistent Demand for Autonomy” form of autism or neurodivergence 💡

This is also why we approach child development, education, and trauma-informed behavioral health differently here than other ABA centers; it’s because we are putting our science to use!

Please seek more help and expertise with this population if you’re a teacher or parent working with behaviors out of your control because it is not punishment they need but skills! 🫶

10/09/2025

This is called “learned helplessness,” and is something we’re kind of obsessed with preventing in Montessori.

Thankfully, most behavior analysts know how to teach for independence and autonomy by enriching the environment to teach new relevant skills while gently fading out supports.

“The child who has never learned to work by himself, to set his own goals and to be persistent, will not be prepared for independence.” —Dr. Maria Montessori

Montessori education prepares children for true independence by cultivating perseverance, purpose, and responsibility from the earliest years.

How have you seen independence flourish in your classroom or home? Share your experience in the comments.

Reference: Montessori, M. (1949/1995). The absorbent mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

10/05/2025

💯🎯 Yes!

Inclusion IS possible and there is no reason to keep people from experiencing a full and enriched life, but does require everyone to be on board and does sometimes require 1:1 support for safety.

Keep in mind, 1:1 support does not have to be intrusive or inhibiting. With skills-based treatment done by trained implementors, the skills are taught and supported according to each individual’s needs, not a packaged curriculum.

Yes, ALL levels of support - even, and especially, those most profound and severely impacted by autism and other behavioral concerns.

Please don’t give up on finding truly compassionate and assent-based behavioral healthcare providers 🫶 The evidence-based research is out there and practitioners like us are growing in numbers; this way is soon becoming the norm 🎉

So… if a program calls itself “inclusive” and my profoundly autistic son Charlie still can’t be there safely, is it really inclusive?

I’ve seen this everywhere. Swim lessons. “Sensory-friendly” hours. Even school. For a kid like Jude, who’s level 1, inclusion works. But for Charlie, it’s near impossible.

Lower the lights → great for some.
Turn down the volume → great for some.
Small group sizes → great for some.

But for kids with profound autism, it often doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Charlie doesn’t just need dimmed lights. He needs 1:1 eyes on him at all times so he doesn’t bolt into traffic or slap a stranger.
Charlie doesn’t need shorter lines. He needs full safety protocols because waiting in line at all is a meltdown risk.

Charlie doesn’t need “sensory-friendly.” He needs support that looks nothing like what people picture when they hear autism.

And that’s the point: the word inclusive sounds nice, but it’s too often designed for the easiest kids to include. The ones who can walk in with a few tweaks and blend in.

That isn’t Charlie. That isn’t profound autism.

So yes, that’s another reason I believe profound autism needs to be recognized separately. Because until it is, “inclusive” will always leave kids like my son standing outside the door.

Food for thought.

09/30/2025

📚 If there is one children’s tv show I could recommend for families, it is Reading Rainbow! 🌈

https://youtu.be/X74MZfG9jXg?feature=shared

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13981893/reading-rainbow-returns-host-mychal-threets?fbclid=IwZnRzaANI34hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsuHIskZjFuivZJ5L9eFuIbRMYmsrBw0nyIExt3e3Wcgmppj7G0cXo7eO1qn_aem_0XEkv_y3_WzxZdaoffBvMw

'Reading Rainbow' is returning to TV with a new host: Mychal Threets, also known as Mychal the Librarian, a Bay Area librarian immensely popular on TikTok and Instagram.

Read more ⬇️

09/24/2025

I highly recommend learning with Dr. Rolfe! 🎉

https://www.public-montessori.org/courses/what-montessori-teachers-need-to-know-about-special-education-fall-2025/