The Word Method has a long history, going back in America to Horace Mann in the 1840's and in Europe to Friedrich Gedike in Germany and John Joseph Jacotot in France.

The earliest example is probably the "Orbis Pictus" of Johann Amos Comenius in 1657. He called it Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a World of Things Obvious to the Senses Drawn in Pictures (150 pictures with Latin and English captions).

The Word Method should not be confused with today's Whole Language movement created by Ken Goodman and Frank Smith, which he called a "psycholinguistics guessing game."

Some of the major educators behind the Word Method in America besides Horace Mann were William Gray, Edward Ward, and John Dewey