Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community:
Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence to Learning
Appendix I


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Learning about Writing*


Writing is communicating with others by putting ideas in print. Most young children find it easier to learn to form the letters of the alphabet than to read them. One reason for this may be that writing is something they can control, while reading requires them to find meaning in the words that other people have created. The development of writing skills depends on eye-hand coordination and visual perception. Often, children can distinguish between letter forms before they have the skills needed to write them.

Children pass through stages as they develop the skills used in drawing and writing. At each stage children acquire new information about writing. They use what they already know to make sense of new discoveries. Over time, they come to many understandings that lead them to conventional writing--writing that follows the accepted rules of form, grammar, and spelling.

Stages of Drawing and Writing

Early scribbling describes what older babies and toddlers do when first introduced to crayons and paper. They grasp the crayon in a fist and make random marks on paper. They enjoy the physical experience of holding a crayon and moving their hand back and forth across the paper. They show little interest in the products of their scribbling.

Controlled scribbling usually begins after a child has spent several months doing random scribbling. At this stage, children discover that they can control the marks they make with a crayon or marker. This ability is the result of cognitive and physical gains. The child's small muscle skills and eye-hand coordination have improved, as has the ability to think before doing something. Controlled scribbling gives children a sense of power and control over their environment. They explore scribbling techniques, colors, and ways to use different writing tools. A child might scribble in lines, circles, or zigzags, often repeating specific actions and forms again and again.

In the basic forms stage children recognize forms such as rectangles, squares, and circles in their scribbles. As children's small muscle control and eye-hand coordination improves, they find they can repeat the actions that led to forming these shapes. Children combine the forms in different ways in their drawing and writing, sometimes including scribbles and basic forms on the same piece of paper. Although they do not set out to draw a specific object or person, children sometimes name their drawings after they are finished. Children also engage in scribble writing--horizontal, linear scribbles that go across the page as if they were actual words. Scribble writing does not look like actual letters. Its connected loops and lines resemble the writing system used by a child's culture and home language. Eventually, a child's scribbles begin to look more and more like letters. At first, the scribbles have jagged edges and then features that look like letters--straight and curved lines and lines that cross each other. Many times children separate the scribble writing from the rest of their drawing. This shows that they understand that drawing and writing are different. Some children read their scribble writing out loud as if it were a story that described the drawing.

The pictorial stage begins when children can combine marks and basic forms to draw pictures that others can recognize. Children understand that their pictures are symbols that represent real things. This understanding goes hand in hand with the knowledge that words, too, are symbols. At this stage, children think about what they want to draw or paint, carry out their plan, and give their creation a name. They may continue to include scribble writing alongside the picture. Children often write their names on their pictures--the first letter of their first name, some of the letters in their name, or the entire name. They may also write other letters they are mastering. When children begin writing letters on purpose, they may make them backward or upside down. Gradually, they learn to write letters right side up and facing in the conventional direction. Handwriting comes later as children experiment with the mechanics of forming letters and words in conventional ways.

Children's Literacy Discoveries

Children learn about writing at the same time and in conjunction with knowledge of speaking and reading. Although young children do not yet write in conventional ways, families and Head Start staff should encourage emergent writing in home and in Head Start settings. Writing focuses children's attention on print, helps them learn that letters represent sounds, and contributes to their emergent reading skills. As they make discoveries such as those described below, children build their understanding of oral and written forms of language.

Drawing and Writing Are Different

Young children sometimes use drawing as a way to communicate. They read their drawings as if they were reading printed words. By about age three, most children have figured out that writing and drawing are different. They make different marks when drawing than they do when writing. Their drawings clearly look like pictures, and their scribble writing looks like the writing they have seen adults use. As children discover more about writing, they unintentionally make marks that resemble letters. While looking at his work, a child may be surprised to find that his marks are similar to a familiar letter--That's an E. I made an E. They bring their papers to an adult--someone who can read--and ask, What does it say? Other times, children believe that what they have written carries meaning. They can read their scribble writing to someone else.

The Written Version of a Name Is a Symbol for That Person

Young children are very interested in themselves. Usually the first word a child writes conventionally is his or her first name. This accomplishment occurs after the child has conducted many experiments with writing. At first, children may draw pictures to symbolize themselves. Over time, they gradually go through the following stages:*

Discoveries about reading accompany children's exploration of name writing. For example, when Azim sees an A on a box of cereal, he recognizes the letter and announces that his name is on the box. He considers the letter A to belong to him and nobody else. Over time, Azim figures out that the letter A can be used for other purposes.

Children often apply their knowledge of the first letter in each other's names to make new literacy discoveries. For example, a child reads Bus on the language experience chart because she recognizes the letter B. She knows it is the same letter as the one that comes at the beginning of her friend Brittany's name.

There Are Certain Rules That Apply to Conventional Writing

It takes lots of experience and exploration for children to discover the rules of conventional writing. Their experiments with writing build self-confidence, which helps them take risks and learn new things. Many children will master conventional writing without being corrected by adults.

Children sometimes make words by writing the letters they know in random order. The letters are usually from their own name and other familiar names, words, and phrases. Although children can read the words to someone else, this reading is not related phonetically to the letters they have used. For example, Stephanie might write, PTESH and PNIST, two words composed from the letters in her name. When asked what words these are, she says, milk and oatmeal. When children write words in this way, they show that they understand two important rules of conventional writing: letters make up words, and words have different meanings when the letters are combined in different ways. With more experience, children learn about phonetics--the sound each letter represents.

As children continue to learn about writing, they use invented spellings to communicate messages to other people. Their writing may look like random letters placed on the page without a plan. Sometimes children write using all consonants and no vowels. These forms of writing are usually based on a system devised by the child, using what he already knows about reading and writing. For example, when a child uses one letter to represent each syllable or word, he is using his knowledge of phonetics. When asked, children can read their writing to others. Over time, they make more discoveries about written language and combine these discoveries with what they already know to increase their understanding. One sign of such progress occurs when a child writes words she knows in conventional ways and uses invented spelling for the rest of the message.

Symbols and Print in the Environment and in Books Have Consistent Meaning

Children who have gained this understanding know that each time they see the logo for a favorite restaurant or brand of sneakers, it means the same thing. They know that a sign reading Exit indicates a door for leaving the building and that this meaning stays the same at different times--today and tomorrow--and in different places--at the center and at church. They also know that we always read the words in a book the same way. The words and the meanings they convey do not change. They apply this understanding in their own writing. When asked to read their writing, they will read it the same way from one day to the next.

Practices That Support Literacy Learning

A child's environment and experiences at home, at Head Start, and in the community greatly influence his or her learning about oral and written forms of language. Adults--families and Head Start staff--do not need to get children ready to write. Children's own curiosity will lead them to make their own discoveries. Adults can assist by creating literacy-rich environments and building on what children can already do and what they already know. The following practices support children's emerging literacy skills:

* Based on Mary Mayesky, Donald Neuman, and Raymond J. Wlodkowski, Creative Activities for Young Children, 3rd ed. (Albany, N.Y.:Delmar Publishers, 1985), 97-105; and Kathryn F. Whitmore and Yetta M. Goodman, "Transforming Curriculum in Language and Literacy," in Sue Bredekamp and Teresa Rosegrant, eds., Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment, Vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1995), 149-157.

*Adapted from Lieberman, Evelyn. "Name Writing and the Preschool Child." ERIC Clearinghouse for Elementary and Early Childhood Education, 1985. (ERIC Document No. ED 269 759.)

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