Beyond ABC Order: A Thoughtful Sequence for Introducing Letter Sounds

When we think about teaching letters to young children, the alphabet often seems like the most natural place to begin.

A, B, C, D...

After all, that is the order most of us learned as children. It is the order of the alphabet song, alphabet books, classroom charts, and countless early learning activities.

But the alphabet was never designed as a developmental sequence for learning to read.

Alphabetical order organizes letters. It does not take into consideration how easily children can hear different sounds, how similar or different letter shapes are, how quickly children can use the sounds they know to begin building words, or how young children naturally progress from spoken language to written language.

Research on early literacy has consistently shown that learning to read depends on much more than memorizing the alphabet. Children need to develop phonemic awareness, understand the relationship between sounds and written symbols, and gradually learn to blend, segment, and manipulate sounds in words (National Reading Panel, 2000; Foorman et al., 2016).

So, after my Montessori training and years of experience in the classroom, I began to think more deeply about a different question:

If we consider what we know about early literacy development, Montessori education, and how young children learn, what would a thoughtful sequence for introducing letter sounds look like?

The result was this:

Set 1: m, a, t, s

Set 2: p, i, n, f

Set 3: c, o, r, d

Set 4: h, e, b, l

Set 5: g, u, k, v

Set 6: j, w, y, z, x, q

This is not intended to be a rigid sequence that every child must follow at the same pace.

Rather, it is a thoughtfully designed progression based on several important principles of early literacy development, Montessori education, and years of observing children as they begin their journey into written language.

(If you'd like to extend this learning with hands-on experiences, explore my Montessori-inspired Language & Literacy resources designed to support each stage of the progression.)

Why Not Teach Letters in Alphabetical Order?

The alphabet is an organizational system. It not an instructional sequence. Teaching letters from A to Z may seem logical to adults, but alphabetical order does not consider the developmental needs of a child learning to connect spoken sounds with written symbols.

For example, an alphabetical sequence begins:

a, b, c, d, e, f...

Within the first few letters, children encounter letterforms that can be visually confusing, sounds that vary in how easily they can be isolated and pronounced, and relatively limited opportunities for meaningful phonetic word building.

Research on foundational literacy supports systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and letter-sound relationships, with children gradually applying that knowledge to blending, segmenting, decoding, and word building (National Reading Panel, 2000; Foorman et al., 2016). Simple beginning-sound activities provide meaningful opportunities for children to connect spoken sounds with written symbols before moving on to reading and writing.

However, research does not identify one universal sequence in which letters must be introduced.

That gives educators an opportunity—and a responsibility—to consider the order thoughtfully.

What Did I Consider When Creating This Sequence?

I developed this sequence around several key principles.

1. Begin with Sounds Children Can Hear and Distinguish

Before children can use letters to read and write, they must begin to understand that spoken words are made up of individual sounds.

Some sounds are easier to isolate and hear than others.

Continuous sounds such as:

/m/, /s/, /f/, /n/

can be prolonged.

A child can hear:

/mmmmmm/

or

/ssssss/

This can make the individual sound easier to notice and isolate.

Other sounds, such as /t/, /p/, and /c/, are stop sounds. They cannot be stretched in the same way.

The National Reading Panel (2000) identified phonemic awareness—the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words—as an important foundation for learning to read.

A thoughtful sequence, therefore, should consider not simply which letters children see first, but also the characteristics of the sounds those letters represent.

Our groups intentionally include a combination of continuous and stop sounds while providing enough contrast for children to begin developing careful auditory discrimination.

2. Introduce Vowels Early

Children need vowels to begin building phonetic words.

A sequence that introduces many consonants before introducing vowels may allow children to learn several isolated sounds, but it limits what they can do with those sounds.

For this reason, the sequence introduces a new short vowel in each of the first five sets:

Set 1: a

Set 2: i

Set 3: o

Set 4: e

Set 5: u

This allows the child’s possibilities for word building to expand gradually.

The child is not simply collecting letter sounds.

The child is gaining tools that can increasingly be used to analyze, construct, write, and eventually read words.

Research on early literacy instruction supports connecting letter-sound learning with opportunities for blending, segmenting, and word building rather than teaching letter sounds only as isolated facts (Foorman et al., 2016; Oudeans, 2003).

This idea also fits naturally within the Montessori language curriculum.

Children are given opportunities to use their growing knowledge of sounds with the Moveable Alphabet, allowing them to construct words and express ideas even before the mechanical skill of handwriting has fully developed.

As children become familiar with each new group of letters, they also benefit from opportunities to reinforce those sounds in different contexts. Revisiting the same letters through a variety of purposeful, hands-on experiences strengthens sound-symbol associations, deepens phonemic awareness, and builds confidence before new letters are introduced.

The Beginning Sounds Cut & Paste Worksheets (Sets 1–6) were designed to follow this same progression, giving children additional opportunities to practice each group of letters after they have been introduced through the three-period lesson, before moving on to the next set.

3. Consider Auditory Contrast

Young children are developing increasingly refined auditory discrimination.

For this reason, I considered how the sounds within each group relate to one another.

Introducing several sounds that are highly similar can create unnecessary confusion for a beginning learner.

Instead, the groups intentionally contain a mixture of sounds with different auditory qualities.

For example, a continuous sound may be introduced alongside a stop sound.

The goal is to give children opportunities to hear clear differences between sounds while gradually refining their ability to distinguish more subtle differences.

This reflects an important Montessori principle: Isolate the difficulty whenever possible.

When we carefully select and contrast sounds, we allow the child to focus more clearly on the specific relationships being learned.

4. Consider Visual Contrast

Children are not only learning sounds.

They are simultaneously learning the symbols that represent those sounds.

Some lowercase letters are visually more similar than others.

Consider:

b, d, p, q

Young children may need considerable visual discrimination to distinguish among these symbols.

For this reason, I intentionally considered letter shape when creating the groups.

Whenever possible, early sets contain letterforms that are visually distinct from one another.

As children gain experience with written symbols and strengthen their visual discrimination skills, more challenging letterforms can be introduced.

This is particularly relevant in Montessori education because the child experiences letters through multiple senses.

With the Sandpaper Letters, the child: sees the symbol, hears the sound, and traces the shape.

Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized the importance of sensory and movement-based experiences in the child’s development. The Sandpaper Letters reflect this principle by connecting visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic experiences during the child’s introduction to written language.

Modern research has also explored the benefits of integrating visual, auditory, and motor experiences during letter learning, suggesting that handwriting and letter-production experiences can contribute to children’s developing letter knowledge (James & Engelhardt, 2012).

5. Create Opportunities for Word Building as Early as Possible

One of the most important considerations in developing this sequence was:

What can children do with the sounds they have learned?

The purpose of learning letter sounds is not simply to memorize 26 isolated associations.

Children are discovering that words can be broken into sounds and that those sounds can be represented by symbols.

As their understanding grows, they benefit from opportunities to apply this new knowledge in meaningful, hands-on ways. Before children begin building words independently, they can strengthen their phonemic awareness by listening for sounds, sorting objects, and connecting spoken language with written symbols through simple matching activities.

Matching pictures with their beginning sounds is one of the first ways children can independently apply their growing phonemic awareness, strengthening the connection between spoken sounds and their written symbols through purposeful, hands-on practice.

A thoughtfully designed sequence allows children to begin using their growing knowledge relatively quickly.

As each new set is introduced, the number of phonetic words children can potentially analyze and construct expands.

This is particularly valuable in a Montessori environment, where children can use the Moveable Alphabet to express ideas and build words before handwriting becomes fluent.

Research has shown that instruction integrating letter-sound relationships with blending and segmenting can support the development of early word-reading skills (Oudeans, 2003).

The goal, therefore, is not simply:

“How many sounds does the child know?”

A more meaningful question is:

“What is the child beginning to do with the sounds they know?”

6. Make the Sequence Cumulative

Each new set should not replace the previous one.

It should build upon it.

The progression is designed so that previously introduced sounds continue to appear in later activities.

A child working with Set 3 is still using sounds introduced in Sets 1 and 2.

This creates repeated opportunities for practice and reinforcement.

The progression becomes:

learn → practice → apply → revisit → expand

rather than:

learn → complete → forget → move on

Systematic and cumulative instruction is an important principle in evidence-based foundational literacy instruction (Foorman et al., 2016).

It also aligns naturally with the Montessori classroom, where children return to materials and concepts repeatedly as their skills, interests, and understanding develop.

7. Move from Sound Awareness Toward Meaningful Written Language

The ultimate goal is not simply to teach letter sounds.

The larger progression is:

hearing sounds in spoken language

↓

isolating individual sounds

↓

connecting sounds with symbols

↓

identifying beginning sounds

↓

segmenting words into sounds

↓

building words

↓

writing and reading

This progression reflects what researchers often describe as the development of the alphabetic principle: the understanding that spoken language consists of sounds and that written symbols represent those sounds.

Linnea Ehri’s research on the development of word-reading skills has demonstrated the importance of children forming connections between the sounds they hear in words and the letters they see in print (Ehri, 2005, 2014).

This is why the order of introduction matters.

Each new group of sounds should give the child additional tools for moving forward in this progression.

Why Are Some Letters Introduced Later?

The final set includes:

j, w, y, z, x, q

These letters are not less important.

They are simply less productive during the earliest stages of phonetic word building, less common in early words, or they present additional complexities.

For example, q is generally encountered with u in English.

The letter x commonly represents two sounds, /k/ and /s/.

The letter y can function as both a consonant and a vowel.

By introducing these letters later, children first develop a strong foundation with more immediately useful and relatively straightforward letter-sound relationships.

The Complete Sequence

Taking these principles into consideration, I developed the following progression:

Set 1: m, a, t, s

Introduces continuous and stop sounds, strong visual and auditory contrast, and the first short vowel.

Set 2: p, i, n, f

Adds a second short vowel and significantly expands opportunities for phonetic word building.

Set 3: c, o, r, d

Introduces another short vowel and additional high-utility consonants.

Set 4: h, e, b, l

Continues expanding the child’s possibilities for constructing and analyzing phonetic words.

Set 5: g, u, k, v

Introduces the final short vowel and additional consonants, further expanding the child’s phonetic vocabulary.

Set 6: j, w, y, z, x, q

Introduces letters that are less common in early phonetic words or involve more complex sound-symbol relationships.

A Sequence Is a Guide, Not a Rule

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about this sequence is that it is not intended to override observation of the individual child.

Montessori education asks us to follow the child.

One child may already know many letter sounds.

Another may need additional experience with oral language and sound discrimination.

A child may show a strong interest in the first letter of their name.

Another may be ready to move quickly from sound work to the Moveable Alphabet.

Dr. Montessori repeatedly emphasized the importance of observation as the foundation of the teacher’s work. The prepared environment and carefully sequenced materials provide structure, but the teacher must observe the individual child to determine readiness and appropriate next steps.

A well-designed sequence gives teachers a logical pathway. It does not require every child to walk that pathway at exactly the same speed.

The sequence provides structure. Observation provides direction.

Bringing Research and Montessori Practice Together

There is no single universally accepted order for introducing letter sounds.

What research does tell us is that foundational literacy instruction benefits from being systematic, explicit, cumulative, and connected to meaningful opportunities for children to work with sounds and written symbols (National Reading Panel, 2000; Foorman et al., 2016).

Montessori education adds another important dimension.

We observe the individual child.

We move from concrete experiences toward abstraction.

We isolate difficulty.

We engage multiple senses.

We provide opportunities for repetition.

And we give children the tools they need to become increasingly independent learners.

This sequence was developed at the intersection of these ideas.

It is not the only possible sequence.

It is not a rigid prescription.

It is a thoughtful, developmentally informed pathway designed to help children move from hearing sounds to discovering the extraordinary possibilities of written language.

Final Thoughts

When we teach letters alphabetically, we are following an order created to organize the alphabet.

When we create a thoughtful letter-sound sequence, we are considering the child.

We consider what children can hear.

What they can distinguish.

What they can see.

What they can build.

What they already know.

And what they may be ready to discover next.

That is the purpose behind the Tutto Mani Montessori Early Language Sequence.

Not simply to teach children their letters.

But to give them, one carefully chosen sound at a time, the tools they need to unlock written language.

References

Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(2), 167–188.

Ehri, L. C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5–21.

Foorman, B. R., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., et al. (2016). Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

James, K. H., & Engelhardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1(1), 32–42.

Montessori, M. (1949/1995). The Absorbent Mind. Henry Holt.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based

Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Oudeans, M. K. (2003). Integration of letter-sound correspondences and phonological awareness skills of blending and segmenting: A pilot study examining the effects of instructional sequence on word reading for kindergarten children with low phonological awareness. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26(4), 258–280.