Writing Development Young Ages By: Christina Toso

Writing Development By 18 months they begin to hold a pencil or crayon and scribble. During preschool years, you can recognize the shapes they are drawing. By age 4, writing is clearly different from their drawings. Pseudowriting: children's early writing, reveals knowledge about written language. This looks like scribble. By age 5, children are frequently incorporating letters and letter-like forms into their pseudowriting.

Handwriting In elementary school, children’s handwriting becomes smaller and smoother. It becomes a little more legible.

Spelling Learn to write their names and a few words as soon as they know the alphabet. First/second grade- incorporate common letter patterns (-ight, -ound, -ing) Invented spellings: words that are made up by children by capturing the sound of what they are trying to spell –This is a hws the sun wl shin nd mi grdn wl gro

Composition Skills When preschoolers write they do it with a purpose in mind –A toy, letter to grandparents When children start to write its usually in narrative form –Personal experience, fictional story

Promoting writing development Provide tools for drawing and writing as soon as children are old enough to use them –Children explore with writing, drawing and painting –As fine motor skills, cognitive abilities and knowledge of written symbols continue to improve during preschool years, they will continually produce recognizable shapes and letters.