This page sets out the peer-reviewed research behind a statement on our Programs page: that a Montessori education has been linked to measurable gains in attention, executive function, and self-regulation. Below are the primary studies, what they find, how we read the evidence, and full citations.

Maria Montessori trained and practised as a physician before opening her first school in 1907. She developed her method empirically, through the systematic observation of children, testing each material against children's responses and keeping those that proved reliable. Her concept of sensitive periods, the developmental windows in which a child is most receptive to a specific kind of learning, corresponds closely to what developmental neuroscience now describes as experience-dependent plasticity, or neuroplasticity (Knudsen, 2004).

The most rigorous evidence to date is a 2025 national randomized controlled trial (Lillard et al., PNAS). It assigned 588 children to public Montessori or to a control group by admissions lottery and followed them from age three to the end of kindergarten. The Montessori group showed statistically significant gains in early reading, in executive function and self-regulation (measured with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task), and in short-term memory.

These results are consistent with a 2011 review in Science (Diamond and Lee), which identified Montessori among the educational approaches shown to support the development of executive function in children four to twelve years old.

No single study settles a question this large, and findings vary, most of all with how faithfully a school practises the method. The clearest and most consistent effects appear in authentic, high-fidelity Montessori, and the studies that have found weaker results have generally involved adapted rather than fully authentic settings. A 2017 review of the field (Marshall) reaches the same conclusion.

That distinction is the whole reason AMI recognition exists, and it is the standard AMS holds to. It is also why we describe the research as linked to these gains, the same measured language the researchers themselves use, rather than promising an outcome for every child.

Lillard, A. S., et al. (2025). A national randomized controlled trial of the impact of public Montessori preschool at the end of kindergarten. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2506130122

Diamond, A., and Lee, K. (2011). Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old. Science, 333(6045), 959–964. doi.org/10.1126/science.1204529

Knudsen, E. I. (2004). Sensitive periods in the development of the brain and behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(8), 1412–1425. doi.org/10.1162/0898929042304796

Lillard, A. S. (2017). Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Courtier, S., et al. (2021). Effects of Montessori education on the academic, cognitive, and social development of disadvantaged preschoolers. Child Development. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13575

Marshall, C. (2017). Montessori education: a review of the evidence base. npj Science of Learning, 2, 11. doi.org/10.1038/s41539-017-0012-7