Maria Montessori began her career at the University of Rome's psychiatric clinic working with children with learning difficulties. This led her to found the State Orthophrenic School in the city. Later she extended her work to children of all abilities and opened her first Casa Dei Bambini (children's house) in a Rome slum. After fleeing the Italian Fascist government in 1934, she worked in Spain and South Asia before she settled in the Netherlands, where she died on 6 May, 1952.