Sonya Stoneman taught humanities subjects, including English, for many years. After completing a specialist course to assist students with reading difficulties, she became a Making a Difference teacher at a high school in central Victoria. Her program was innovative and highly valued in the school community. Realizing that the majority of her students lacked basic phonic skills, Sonya devised a phonics-based reading program to use in tutoring sessions. This was published in 1999 under the title First Aid in Reading, and was later published in China and Canada. Sonya has since had 15 other educational books published, including the two Essential Skills textbooks.