“Writing develops…in the same way as speech, which is also a motor translation of sounds that have been heard. Reading, on the other hand, forms a part of an abstract intellectual culture. It interprets ideas represented by graphic symbols and is acquired only later.”

-Dr. Maria Montessori

It Starts with Sounds

Montessori teachers teach children the phonetic sound of each letter before they teach the name of each letter, creating the building blocks of reading. They take this approach because the child is able to absorb sounds easily, without having to memorize the name of each letter.

It’s Multi-sensorial

The use of the senses with materials such as the sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet, metal insets and cylinder blocks, enhance the process. Using the sandpaper letters and moveable alphabet, children experience each sound and letter audibly, visually, and through touch. This ultimately allows the child to grasp the information more quickly. The moveable alphabet allows children to easily put letters together, sounding them out to spell simple, then eventually, more complex words. 

In the Montessori classroom, children develop hand strength through activities with materials that encourage use of the “pincer grip”, such as the cylinder blocks. The hand position used to pick up the blocks is the same as the one used in holding a pencil. Metal insets allow children to express themselves creatively as they create shapes and artistic patterns using colored pencils. Working with the metal insets teaches children to develop their pencil grip, refine their fine motor skills, and learn how to draw within an outline, which is the material’s control of error.

Learning to Write Naturally Leads into Reading

As the child begins to pick up on the sounds in each letter, letter combinations, and eventually words, they will be able to start reading naturally. Ironically, as a child learns how to write, they are also learning how to read. By working to put letter sounds together, sounding out the letters as they go along, children are starting to write. Maria Montessori herself explains that it is a natural extension of how children learn, First by sound, and eventually after, through memorization. Children do not look at words and try to remember what they are. Their brains are forming sounds and creating words and phrases in their heads.