The Science of Reading is a large body of research on how children learn to read—both how they learn to read words accurately and how they learn to understand what they read. It pulls from many fields (education, psychology, and neuroscience) and it warns against focusing on only one part of reading.

Two research-based models help explain the “big picture”:

• The Simple View of Reading: reading comprehension depends on word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension working together.
• Scarborough’s Reading Rope: skilled reading is made of many “strands” that grow over time—some strands are about word reading, and others are about language and knowledge.

Hands-on Montessori work can fit well with these findings when lessons are clear, sequenced, and give children many chances to practice with real language.

Below are six key skills, in the order you listed, with what the skill is, why it matters, and how ETC Montessori materials support it.

1) Phonological Awareness

Definition (Science of Reading): Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and work with parts of spoken language—like rhymes, syllables, and sound “chunks.” It happens by ear, not by looking at letters.

Why it matters: This is an early foundation. Children who can notice and play with sound patterns are more ready to learn how sounds connect to letters later.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• Rhyming Activities with Objects: children match objects that rhyme, building careful listening.
• Syllable Sorting: children sort pictures by 1–4 syllables, strengthening syllable awareness.
• Word Segmentation with Elkonin Boxes: children move markers into boxes to represent sound parts; this often bridges into phoneme work.
• Nursery Rhymes Kit 1 & Kit 2: repeated rhyme builds rhythm, memory for language, and sound attention.

Good practice tip: Keep it playful and oral. Ask, “Do these rhyme?” “How many claps?” and “What do you hear at the end?”

2) Phonemic Awareness

Definition (Science of Reading): Phonemic awareness is a more advanced part of phonological awareness. It is the ability to notice and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words—blending, segmenting, deleting, or swapping sounds.

Why it matters: Phonemic awareness supports both decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling), because children learn that words can be “taken apart” and “put back together” by sound.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• I Spy Activities with Objects: focuses attention on beginning sounds with concrete objects.
• What’s the New Word? Kit A / Kit B: children change sounds to make new words (a powerful phoneme-manipulation skill).
• Initial and Ending Sound Recognition: practice isolating first and last sounds.
• Pink, Blue, and Green Reading Series: provides structured practice moving from simple sound patterns to more complex ones.

Good practice tip: If a child struggles, go back to easier tasks (first sound only → last sound → blending → full segmenting).

3) Building Knowledge

Definition (Science of Reading): Building knowledge means growing a child’s understanding of the world and word meanings so they can understand texts about many topics. Comprehension gets stronger when children have enough topic knowledge to make sense of what they read.

Why it matters: Many reading problems are not just “word reading” problems. Children can decode a passage and still not understand it if the topic and vocabulary are unfamiliar.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• General 3-part cards: teach precise vocabulary and concepts using clear images and labels (ex: Tools 3 Part Cards; Animals and Their Sounds 3 Part Cards).
• Montessori presentations that go with them: teacher albums/training manuals support rich oral lessons and correct language use around the cards.

Good practice tip: Pair cards with real experiences: touch real tools, observe animals, cook with real fruits—then revisit the vocabulary.

4) Orthographic Mapping

Definition (Science of Reading): Orthographic mapping is the process the brain uses to store written words for fast, accurate reading. Children map letters to sounds and connect that spelling to the word’s pronunciation and meaning. This is how “sight word” reading truly develops.

Why it matters: It explains why strong readers can read many words instantly—not by guessing, but because those words are securely stored in memory.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• Sight words within the Pink/Blue/Green sequence: repeated reading in meaningful tasks supports memory for common words.
• Word lists within the Pink/Blue/Green sequence: fluency is developed as children repeat the words on the list
• Lower and Upper Case Letter Differentiation: helps children link forms that represent the same letters, supporting accurate word learning.
• Green Reading Series phonogram work: repeated practice with spelling patterns (like sh, th, ee, ai) strengthens spelling-to-sound knowledge needed for mapping.

Good practice tip: If a child is memorizing shapes of words, return to “sound it out” using known patterns.

5) Language Development

Definition (Science of Reading): Language development includes vocabulary, sentence knowledge, and strong speaking/listening. These skills support understanding once words are decoded. Research-based guidance stresses teaching vocabulary and using talk that builds academic language.

Why it matters: Children can only understand what they can language-process. Strong language makes comprehension grow faster.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• 3-part cards: build vocabulary depth (names, categories, precise terms).
• Same and Different: builds descriptive language, comparison words, and careful observation talk.
• All Montessori presentations: builds langue comprehension, concepts, classification and vocabulary.

Good practice tip: Use complete sentences with children, and invite them to explain: “How are these the same? How are they different?”

6) Comprehension

Definition (Science of Reading): Comprehension is the process of extracting and constructing meaning from text. It involves the reader, the text, and the purpose for reading.

Why it matters: The goal of reading is meaning. Early comprehension work should begin right away—even with simple texts—by asking children to connect what they read to pictures, actions, and ideas.

How ETC Montessori materials support it (examples):

• Picture sentences and sentence-to-picture matching (Pink/Blue/Green): children must read for meaning, not just decode.
• Phonetic readers (One Word Phonetic Pink Readers): supports early meaning-making with very controlled text.

Good practice tip: Ask short, concrete questions first (“Show me the sentence that matches.”), then move to deeper ones (“Why did that happen?”).