Montessori phonics

Strong opinions are voiced about synthetic phonics, as an innovation that helps young children and improves their future literacy levels (News, 9 June). Maria Montessori was reluctant to teach letter-sound combinations at an early age, but found that children loved learning the sounds if introduced playfully, with the help of simple sandpaper letters. Montessori schools have been working with sandpaper letters and a phonics approach to learning writing and reading ever since.