Knowing when to step in and when to step back

Montessori prepared environments are set up in a way that meets the developmental needs of the students in their care, alongside developmentally appropriate curriculum. As I have stated before, this doesn’t mean the curriculum must be that prescribed in a traditional Montessori manual for a child; however, it is important that we are cognizant of the content of those manuals to ensure curriculum coverage.

There are numerous examples of where this can be confronting. Say, for example, we are faced with a scenario where a seven-year-old can’t use scissors and needs to cut something out to complete an activity. What do you do in this case? Do you leave the child to figure it out because most seven-year-olds know how to cut, so the child can just persevere? Or do you cut some of the activity yourself and have the child cut half? Do you do all the cutting and have the child focus on the other part of the activity? All of the above could be true, dependent on the child in front of you! Your knowledge of the individual child and their rhythm, capability, and what else has happened in their day helps you know when to step in and when to step back.

For example, I observe that Sanjya has had a morning with quite a few struggles. She tried for some time to fit in the smaller countries of Asia in the puzzle map but was having trouble both tracking the countries from the control map to the puzzle map and working out their location. This activity took her a very long time, and I could see her frustration when she missed doing art with her friends at the art table. In this case, I know that if I say to Sanjya that she needs to do all the cutting for a certain activity by herself right now, I could throw her into a state of high dysregulation, as she already feels behind and has used a lot of energy manipulating small things, which involves a lot of fine motor coordination. In this case, based on patterns I have seen before, I cut half of the activity and then she does the rest.

Harry, aged seven and a half, on the other hand, has spent the morning on very familiar activities which he can easily complete: playdough, block building, outside play, and reading in the book corner, for example. He doesn’t like fine motor activities, as is seen by the fact that this morning he has not done any writing or handwriting outside of a lesson with the teacher, and he rarely practises fine motor activities independently. I sit down with him to make a paper lotus flower where we cut petals out of paper. Harry, as is usual for him, only wants to cut out one petal of the five and save the ‘rest’ for later. I know that this will mean he will never complete the activity. Instead of me completing the activity or saying yes, I encourage him with our class mantras:

‘Lisa will never give me anything impossible.’

‘I can do hard things.’

‘I can grow my brain.’

‘When I practise, I can get better.’

I also know that if Harry has a body double (another person in close vicinity to him, usually an older child), he is much more likely to complete this hard task, so I deliberately do this activity next to an older child who is busy with another work.

So, in short, knowing when to step in and when to step back is based on what I know about the child in terms of personality, developmental need, curriculum, and my observations of them.