Phillips B. (2026). "Does the Montessori Approach To Healing Trauma-Affected Children Align with the "Regulate, Relate, and Reason" Phase of the NME? A Thematic Analysis". Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 19(1), 135–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-025-00790-2

Does the Montessori Approach To Healing Trauma-Affected Children Align with the "Regulate, Relate, and Reason" Phase of the NME? A Thematic Analysis

This paper highlights the principle of specificity in neuroscience and the possibility of ‘targeting’ and providing neural input (through repetitive rhythmic activities) to the poorly functioning neural networks in the brains of trauma-affected children, contributing to their psychological healing, as done in the highly successful Neurosequential Model.
 
The paper asks whether the Montessori approach aligns with the Regulate, Relate, and Reason phase of the Neurosequential Model, and, following a meticulous thematic analysis, finds that it does.
 
It also identifies three themes.

The first theme focuses on the intentional use of “Regulating” activities in early Montessori schools through mindfulness, practical life, sensorial, mathematical, language, and cultural exercises, all of which involve repetitive rhythmic movements. These movements provided the requisite neural input to the brainstem needed to modify the brain, because they were offered during the period when children were influenced by certain “sensitive periods” that prompted them to repeat the exercises many times.
 
The second theme focuses on the intentional provision of ‘Relational’ richness in early Montessori schools, through the use of

1. a new kind of teacher;
2. mixed age groups; and
3. peer teaching.

 
The third theme focuses on the biologically respectful approach to Reason in early Montessori schools. This section of the paper provides evidence that Dr. Montessori understood that children are neurobiologically unable, rather than simply unwilling, to reason when they are distressed or dysregulated, and that it is therefore useless to try to reason with them or to make them learn when they are in this state. She stated in The Absorbent Mind that when children are in an anxious or distressed state of mind, “It does not help to reason with the children” (Montessori, p. 202). This understanding anticipates the research on Reason, which is part of the NME.
 
The paper concludes by hoping that these results will encourage contemporary Montessori teachers, highlighting that Montessori schools may have a unique advantage over traditional schools because they already have the infrastructure needed to support children affected by trauma.

Dr Bernadette Phillips