Children are born with the innate desire to communicate. In the early years,
they label, mimic, experiment with spoken sentences, and engage in “verbal
play.” As they develop and grow, there is a natural tendency for children to
expand their love of language into written expression; first through random
scribbles and symbols, and then with specific words and sentences.
Learning to write is a monumental task for children and involves more than
simply “putting talk down on paper.” Writing is an ongoing process that is
dependent on a child’s maturation, exposure, and experience. It is important
to be aware of the developmental stages of writing to best support and
encourage beginning writers.
Beginning writers progress through a continuum of skills and abilities,
acquiring “building blocks ” to help them advance and excel to the next level
of learning.
The first step in writing is seeing one's own words and ideas written on
paper. Children talk about pictures they have painted, experiences they have
had, discoveries they've made, stories they've heard and events they've
imagined. Adults in a kindergarten classroom encourage children to illustrate
these ideas and then work with children to transcribe their dictations.
Children will first be encouraged to begin labeling their illustrations.
This may be as simple as writing their name or family members name next to
the picture. Once sounds have been introduced, the children will begin
stringing letters to represent words. They may even just include
the beginning sound to represent each word. At first, spacing will not be
uniform, letters will not formed properly and may be reversed. As you see
this starting to unfold for your kindergarter offer encouragement and
praise. A child who has learned one skill may take time to practice that
skill before moving to the next stage of writing.
As children develop a letter/sound connection you will begin to notice
beginning sounds in their writing. Children continue to add more and more
sounds as they learn them. Their words become more and more recognizable.
Vowel sounds, which comprise the medial sounds of most words, are among the
more difficult sounds to discern. The medial sounds are often among the last
added.
Children begin writing sentences with kindergarten spelling. At this stage
they seldom leave spaces, write the sounds they "hear", and sometimes leave
out words altogether. After continued exposure to high frequency words (a, I
the, on, etc.), they will begin adding these to their writing with great
pride. As time goes on they begin to put spaces in between words and even use
punctuation. This is the stage when the letter sound correlation has come
full circle. They can sound out words and put them on paper. They can read
it back to you using the same letter sound correlation.
Parents should keep in mind that writing progress is consistent with all
other aspects of development and that children will develop at different
rates. Parents can help by understanding the process and encouraging writing
at home.
