Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educational theorist whose work focused on children learning through materials found in their own environment. In 1896 she began her work in a psychiatric clinic at the University of Rome where she was able raise the abilities of children with special needs through this method. Shortly after this, she opened a school in one of the worst neighbourhoods in Rome where she allowed students to progress at their own pace. In this environment, students were free to learn without having a set of tasks. This method along with the set of materials created to perpetuate her theory was published in a book called the Montessori Method.

Out of the Montessori method was the creation of the Montessori Didactic Apparatus. These didactive pieces were designed to help children develop sensory education, muscular coordination, and language development. These pieces have continued to be the focus for developing the children’s manipulative skills, as well as giving them opportunities for independence and growing in positive self-image. The reason for their development was to focus on a specific skill and for the child to practice this skill (i.e. fastening buckles or tying bows) until they become proficient in doing so.

One of these apparatuses is the dressing frame, designed as an exercise for the development of co-ordinated movements of the fingers. Maria Montessori designed eight of these frames, each one made to prepare children for practical life, like dressing an undressing themselves. The dressing frames are wooden frames that have a variety of fabrics mounted on them and can be joined by means of large buttons and buttonholes, automatic fasteners, hooks and eyes, coloured ribbons for bow tying, and lacing through eyelets.