As children develop their ability to communicate through writing, they also develop writing habits and skills (see Table 8.3.1). These writing habits and skills initially include showing interest in writing and experimenting with writing tools, such as crayons, markers, and touchscreen tablets. In addition, children begin to share drawings and writings with others as they become more aware of their audience and begin to see writing as a socially negotiated act between the writer and the audience (Kissel, 2018). They also develop their identity and voice as writers and gain greater insights into the power of writing (Kissel & Miller, 2015). Initially, they may orally label or explain the objects they draw. Over time, they begin to use their writing to represent and communicate ideas, stories, information, and opinions.
Continuum of Emergent Writing Development: Developing Writing Habits and Skills
Table 8.3.1 “Continuum of Emergent Writing Development: Developing Writing Habits and Skills”. Content is from Virginia’s Early Learning & Development Standards (ELDS): Birth-Five Learning Guidelines. It is used with permission of the creators and is not an open education resource covered by a Creative Commons License.
Shows interest in exploring writing by watching others write and experimenting with writing tools (e.g., tries using crayons, markers, etc. to make marks) (CLLD3.2a)
Early Toddler
12-24 Months
Begins to share drawings/writing and explains the meaning of the illustrations/text (e.g., says circle is a ball) (CLLD3.2b)
Later Toddler
22-36 Months
Shares writing with others as a way to represent their understandings and ideas (CLLD3.2c)
Early Preschool
34-48 Months
Begins to revise writing in the moment based on interactions with peers and adults (CLLD3.2d)
Begins to modify and expand their drawings/writing to meet personal ideas and include others’ ideas (e.g., several children begin drawing rainbows and unicorns after one child narrates their work) (CLLD3.2e)
Later Preschool
44-60 Months
Continues to revise writing in the moment based on interactions with peers and adults (CLLD3.2f)
Begins to revise by adding details to drawings/writings to express their ideas (CLLD3.2g)
Begins to make a plan for the writing they will produce (e.g., creates picture to tell story and then writes) (CLLD3.2h)
As children represent their ideas in writing, they develop an understanding of writing as a process (Kissel et al., 2011). They become aware that they can plan, draft, revise, edit, and share their writing (Kidd et al., 2014). They learn that planning involves selecting a topic and generating ideas. As children talk, listen, and observe, they gather topics and ideas for writing. Children also plan what they want to write through their drawings. As children draw and add details to their drawings, they generate ideas that they can convey orally as well as through scribbles, letter-like forms, letters, words, phrases, and sentences.
Young children gather ideas for their drawings and writing from their own lives. They draw and write about their everyday and special activities, family and friends, stories that have been read to them and/or that they have seen on media, and content they are learning at home and in school (e.g., plants, weather, recycling, etc.). They are also influenced by the thoughts and interests of their peers. As they see their friends draw and write about trucks, they, too, might become interested in drawing and writing about trucks. In addition, adults may have an effect on what children draw and write. For example, children whose family members write letters or emails to friends might decide to write their own letter or email. Likewise, children whose teachers model writing about the plants growing in the classroom might develop an interest in writing about the plants.
As they write and share, interactions with their peers may prompt children to revise their plans. For example, one day, Richelle decided she was going to write about swimming and had started to draw a picture of a swimming pool. As she drew, she noticed Arzu was busy writing invitations to a party. This new idea intrigued her. After a brief conversation with Arzu, Richelle decided to revise her writing plans to include writing an invitation for Arzu to go swimming with her.
Young children also revise and edit as they write (Kidd et al., 2014). Revisions can occur while writing or can be details that are added, deleted, or changed at a later time. For example, a child might add more details to a story as he looks at his picture and realizes there is more to say or might decide to take his sister out of the story because he remembered he was mad at her. A child could also change her mind and decide that the ball is blue rather than red or that there are two balls rather than one. Children’s revisions are often influenced by their peers and adults as they interact with the writing. For example, once Richelle decided to write an invitation, she added Arzu to the picture of the pool. Using letter-like forms and some letters, she wrote, “Will you go with me?” After looking at her picture, she added additional writing to include “to the pool.” As she read her invitation aloud, Hasan interjected that he wanted to go, too. He then said that she needed to say which day or they would not know when to go. Richelle added “on Saturday” to her writing and added a picture of Hasan in the pool with them. After she shared the invitation, Ms. Daryl mentioned that an invitation usually includes what time she wants her friends to meet her. Richelle added a time to her invitation. Through these interactions, Richelle gained important insights into revising her writing.
Young children also learn about editing as they write and interact with others. Edits occur as children make corrections to their writing. This might happen when a child notices that he drew two cars and then adds an s to the label “car” to convey that there is more than one car. Editing also occurs when a child, like Arzu, remembers that her name begins with a capital letter and changes the lowercase a to a capital A. Interactions with peers and adults can also prompt children to edit their writing. For example, a child who is applying his knowledge of letter-sound relationships to sound out words might notice one of the words in his writing is posted on the wall. When he realizes that he is missing a letter in one of his words, he might add the missing letter to the word or may cross out or erase the word and copy the correct spelling. As children make edits to their writing, they gain understandings about the conventions of writing as well as come to understand editing as an important process in writing.
Handling Writing Tools
Figure 8.3.1: Using writing tools helps children develop writing proficiency.
As young children interact with their literate world, they begin to explore a variety of writing tools, including paper, crayons, markers, pens, and digital writing tools such as phones and touchscreen tablets (Rowe, 2018). Their handling of writing tools becomes more proficient as their fine motor skills develop. Initially, young children have limited motor strength and control and, therefore, tend to grasp writing tools with their whole hand to make marks (see Table 8.3.2). As their motor skills develop, they may use their whole arm in an effort to control and direct their markings, scribbles, and drawings. Eventually, they use their fingertips to grasp the writing tool but their grip may be too high or too low. Likewise, it might be too loose or too tight. As they show increased fine motor strength and control, they are able to use three fingers to grip their writing tools to produce letters, words with invented spelling, and memorized words.
Handling Writing Tools
Table 8.3.2 Continuum of Emergent Reading Development: Handling Writing Tools. Content is from Virginia’s Early Learning & Development Standards (ELDS): Birth-Five Learning Guidelines. It is used with permission of the creators and is not an open education resource covered by a Creative Commons License.
Developmental Progression
CLLD3.3 Handling Writing Tools
Early Infancy
0-8 months
Later Infancy
6-14 months
Begins to grasp writing tools to make random marks on a paper with limited control over results (CLLD3.3a)
Begins to use a whole hand grip to manipulate the writing tool (CLLD3.3b)
Early Toddler
12-24 Months
Uses the whole arm to control and direct the scribbles, marks, drawing, and writing intentions (CLLD3.3c)
Later Toddler
22-36 Months
Attempts to use their fingertips to grip writing tools, finger grip may be loose or too tight and finger positioning may be too high or too close to the tip (CLLD3.3d)
Early Preschool
34-48 Months
Begins to show increased fine motor strength in writing (CLLD3.3e)
Becomes more skillful with a variety of writing tools (e.g., markers, pens, pencils, crayons, chalk) (CLLD3.3f)
Later Preschool
44-60 Months
Begins to use a comfortable and efficient three-finger grip to control a variety of writing tools (CLLD3.3g)
Uses a variety of digital tools to write or draw (CLLD3.3h)
Similarly, many children are able to point and use their forefingers to make marks, draw, and scribble when using a touchscreen tablet (Crescenzi et al., 2014). As their fine motor skills develop, children use their fingers or a stylus on a touchscreen tablet to write letters, words with invented spelling, and words that are memorized (Rowe & Miller, 2015). Young children also learn to produce typewritten text, including their names, repeated letters, and words with invented spelling (Rowe & Miller, 2015). Digital tools also allow children to draw, use photographs and imagery, and record oral stories as they write (Eutsler et al., 2020).
As children experiment with and use a variety of writing tools and engage in daily opportunities to write and interact with peers and adults, they gain valuable insights into writing as a way to communicate ideas, stories, information, and opinions. At the same time, they develop important writing skills as they progress from making marks to using invented spelling and memorized or copied words to writing words, phrases, and sentences. As can be seen by the children in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classroom, development along the continuum is individual. Accordingly, educators play an essential role in shaping an environment that promotes young children’s writing.
References
Crescenzi, L., Jewitt, C., & Price. S. (2014). The role of touch in preschool children’s play and learning using iPad versus paper interaction. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 37(2), 86–95.
Eutsler, L., Miller, C., Stamm, B., & Kogut, A. (2020). The influence of mobile technologies on preschool and elementary children’s literacy achievement: A systematic review spanning 2007–2019. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 1739–1768. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09786-1
Kidd, J. K., Burns, M. S., La Croix, L., & Cossa, N. L. (2014). Prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers in high poverty schools speak about young children’s authoring (and we need to listen). Literacy and Social Responsibility, 7(1), 50–71.
Kissel, B. ( 2018). Listen, ask, and study: Reimagining how we interpret prekindergarten writing. Language Arts, 95(4), 242–247.
Kissel, B., Hansen, J., Tower, H., & Lawrence, J. (2011). The influential interactions of prekindergarten writers. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 11(4), 425–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798411416580
Kissel, B. T., & Miller, E. T. (2015). Reclaiming power in the writers’ workshop: Defending curricula, countering narratives, and changing identities in prekindergarten classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 69(1), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1379
Rowe, D. W., & Wilson, S. (2015). The development of a descriptive measure of early childhood writing: Results from the Write Start! Writing Assessment. Journal of Literacy Research, 47(2), 245–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X15619723
