The most asked questions about MARTE MEO, MARTE MEO INTERNATIONAL and the MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES are:
- What does MARTE MEO mean?
- What is the background of the MARTE MEO PROGRAMME?
- Can you inform us about the MARTE MEO INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ORGANISATION?
- Can you inform us about the MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES?
- Which MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES have been developed?
1. What does MARTE MEO mean?
(On One’s Own Strength)
Maria Aarts deliberately chose the name "MARTE MEO" to highlight the central focus of the
programme, which is to identify, activate and develop skills to enable and enhance constructive interaction and development.
MARTE MEO is derived from the Latin "mars martis", a term used in mythology to express "On one's own strength". This is the central
MARTE MEO focus at all the various levels to encourage people to use their own strength to advance and stimulate developmental processes
on the part of children, parents, professional caregivers and supervisors and thus learn to optimally utilise their capacities.
2. What is the background of the MARTE MEO PROGRAMME?
One Sunday afternoon in 1976, a mother who was visiting her autistic son at the institution where he was placed, burst into tears when she saw him together with his therapist, Maria Aarts. "I wish that I could have that kind of contact with my child," she said. This incident was the final confirmation of an idea that Maria had had for a number of years: Why is our professional knowledge not accessible to parents?
Once the idea was formulated in this way, Maria Aarts asked herself: how could professional information be re-formulated so that it could be made accessible to parents in a practical way. The experts had often abstract and mainly problem oriented information and esoteric knowledge has to be rendered into practical, everyday language.
In the process of attempting this, it was discovered that the professional focus was mainly problem oriented; focussing on explanations of pathology.
What was often lacking were descriptions of what to do in order to try and solve the problem.
From 1976 onwards the question has been to develop a practical model which is accessible to parents and other members of the child's natural
system. This development has taken place "on the factory floor" - in continual co-operation with those who work with children and their families.
The first family programme Maria Aarts developed in co-operation with Orion, a centre in The Netherlands, where she was managing director.
It was during these years that Maria Aarts enjoyed a complementary and inspiring co-operation with Harrie Biemans and the rest of the Orion group.
Since 1987 Maria Aarts developed MARTE MEO programmes in co-operation with many different professional groups in many different countries - tailor made training programmes. Since 1987 she is the director of her own company, "MARTE MEO", an international organisation. It was here, in this company, that Maria Aarts developed the first Marte Meo Programmes. Each MARTE MEO programme is an information package specially designed by Maria Aarts to help each profession support the child's development, in terms of prevention, early intervention and treatment. The programmes, included the family programme, since developed, not the least because of international co-operation, into what is today MARTE MEO; an evolution which will certainly continue.
3. Can you inform us about the MARTE MEO INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ORGANISATION?
MARTE MEO was founded in 1987, by Maria Aarts. Since 1987 Maria Aarts developed MARTE MEO programmes in co-operation with many different professional groups in a great number of countries, e.g.
Australia |
Germany |
The Netherlands |
Austria |
Greece |
Norway |
Belarus |
Hungary |
Poland |
Belgium |
India |
Russia |
Brazil |
Ireland |
Spain |
Croatia |
Israel |
Sweden |
Denmark |
Italy |
Switzerland |
Estionia |
Latvia |
Slovenia |
Faeroe Islands |
Liechtenstein |
USA |
France |
Lithuania |
The Netherlands |
MARTE MEO is an international movement, proving not only that the information generated by Maria Aarts has validity in many cultures and contexts, but also the methodology itself is universally applicable.
4. Can you inform us about the MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES?
The MARTE MEO programmes contain concrete and detailed information packages about human interaction and development from different areas. These packages in turn contain practical knowledge about:
- how to identify opportunities for development;
- which natural supportive behaviours are required to assist development, and
- how this knowledge can be incorporated into the natural system of the individual so that they can learn the new skills in the most efficient way possible.
The information packages were developed through observation and analysis of human interaction. Video is the most important tool used for interaction analysis. Within the MARTE MEO programmes, the video becomes a behavioural microscope. Everyday interactional sequences are recorded, and can then be analysed at leisure and in detail. A number of such sequences from related areas provide information about more generable patterns. These patterns can then be made available to others. Examples of such patterns are analysed in general. Specific areas of child development are social development, emotional development, language development, intellectual development, etc. In that way the MARTE MEO information is concretising the academic studies on child development.
5. Which MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES have been developed?
The following MARTE MEO PROGRAMMES have been developed:
- Marte Meo ADHD, see: Programme for Hyperactive Children
- Marte Meo Assessment Programme
- Marte Meo Programme for Autism
- Marte Meo Programme for Cry Babies
- Marte Meo Programme for Child Care
- Marte Meo Child Protection Care
- Marte Meo Child Psychiatry
- Marte Meo Training in Communication Skills
- Marte Meo Programme for Day Care / Kindergarten
- Marte Meo Dementia, see: Programme for Senile Elderly People
- Marte Meo Programme for the Depressed
- Marte Meo Programme for Drug Users and Addiction After-Care
- Marte Meo Programme for Elderly Care
- Marte Meo Family Support Programme
- Marte Meo Foster Care Programme
- Marte Meo Health Care Programme
- Marte Meo Hospital Programme
- Marte Meo Programme for Hyperactive Children / ADHD Children
- Marte Meo Institution Programme (including Residential Care)
- Marte Meo Kindergarten, see: Programme for Day Care
- Marte Meo Programme for People with Intellectual Disability
- Marte Meo Prevention and Early Intervention Programme
- Marte Meo Training Programme on Positive Management Skills
- Marte Meo Programme for Premature Babies
- Marte Meo Residential Care, see: Institution Programme
- Marte Meo Quality Improvement Programme
- Marte Meo School Programme
- Marte Meo Programme for Senile Elderly People (People with Dementia)
- Marte Meo Training Programmes for Universities and Colleges