Writing Before Reading

Every three-year-old child I know can sing their ABCs. Yes, it's good to memorize things, and yes, it's a good song (set to 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'), but knowing the names of letters at that age is pointless.

Montessori recognized that most people didn't put much stock in what tiny learners are capable of learning. Even now, after 100 years of knowing what children need, people still don't teach their kids the right things. Instead of focusing on the names of letters, teach them a skill they can use: letter sounds.

You see, Montessori teaches children to write before they read. She thought the first words they should read should be their own words, spelled phonetically. They can't do this without sounds. Three-year-old children (and younger, if they are so inclined) have the ability to learn letter recognition and the sounds they make. Pretty soon, with the aid of sensorial activities such as sandpaper letters, they are able to write their letters and before you know it, they can write.

Montessori observed that the traditional path of teaching 6-year-old children to read and 8-year-old children to write wasn't working. By these ages, the child must be taught to read and write if they are going to keep with cultural convention-- and it is at the risk of ignoring the child's interests (The Discovery of the Child, p. 185). If it was a problem back in 1907, why is it still a problem today? Well, I have some ideas but let's stick to the main point...

Montessori thought it prudent to break up the skills needed to read and write and teach them to children as they become able to learn them (buzz words: sensitive period). Then it isn't so difficult later.

I'm going to give you a personal example, and it's not because I think my daughter is the most brilliant and beautiful girl who ever graced us with her presence, but because she inspired me to write this post. She proves my point. She is in love with sandpaper letters. She goes over and over them with her fingers, saying the sounds.

She is also interested in painting and drawing and has gone through and entire ream of 500 sheets of paper in the past 3 months. To say she is in a sensitive period for writing is an understatement, but I waited until she asked if she could write letters. I asked her what letters she knows. She filled 3 pages of paper with the letter 'm'. Then 2 pages with the letter 'o'. Then she put them together on paper and exclaimed, "I just wrote 'mom'!" To the left is her first, second, third and fourth written word. I can't wait until she wants to write a different word!

Sure, I could have showed her how to write or read (maybe) anything, but I think her original discovery of her own first word is going to prove much more valuable. She wrote a word and read it at the same time! (This Montessori moment brought to you by, well, Maria Montessori.) I could be bragging about her, but the truth is, all children at her stage in development can do this if they are given the opportunity.

Before I get too far in lala-kids-are-wonderful-land, I want to remind you that Montessori believed in the power of the hand. If you can feel it with your hands, your brain will learn it better. This is why writing first is more valuable than reading first.

If the child is able to sound out a word on paper and then read it, please tell me why on earth that child needs to know the names of the letters. Anyone?