The internationally renowned Montessori teaching method was founded in circa 1906 by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian medical doctor. Dr. Montessori initially worked with special needs children and was enormously successful in developing and applying teaching methods which aided their learning. Her educational methods were revolutionary in that they were based on the scientific observation of how children learnt. She did not merely impose traditional teaching methods which she felt restricted children realising their full potential. In particular the Montessori approach emphasises learning through all five senses and not only through the more traditional approaches of listening, watching and reading. Dr. Montessori's special needs children performed so successfully when they wrote the public school examinations that she subsequently founded a school in Rome called “Casa dei Bambini” (Children's House), where her teaching methods and principles were applied. Shortly thereafter two more Montessori schools were established and the word quickly spread about her successful teaching methods.