In this episode of Illinois STAR NET Regions I&III (http://starnet.org/home/) podcast, one of our resource specialists discusses the seven stages of writing development in children.
Come learn with us.
Transcript
Oh, he’s just scribbling! Just!? Scribbling is a crucial pre-cursor to developing writing skills. Let’s take a look at the stages of writing development.
It begins with scribbling, making random marks on a paper, sometimes small and light, other times boldly filling a page with color.
Mock handwriting imitates cursive writing and appears as a wavy line. Children may use mock writing during dramatic play when, for example, they write a grocery list or take a food order at the classroom café.
These letter-like shapes are children’s first attempts at making conventional alphabet letters. You may see them in drawings, perhaps as labels.
Mock letters soon become more realistic, looking more like actual letters of the alphabet. Usually the first ones that appear are those in the child’s name.
The letters may be written across the page in a string, looking like a sentence. Or, if repeated, may appear to be a paragraph.
Children begin to cluster conventional letters so they appear to be words. The letters in the “words” are random and do not spell an actual word.
Children use phonetic spelling as they attempt to spell words based on their awareness of letters and their sounds. Words are usually written using capital letters. In the early stage, a child may write only the beginning and final letter of a word. In later stages, a middle consonant or vowel appears.
A child’s first name is usually the first word spelled conventionally. Other words, like mom, dad, dog, cat are also among the first conventionally spelled words.
As children progress through the various stages of writing, the stages may overlap as they experiment with writing tools. A page of mostly scribbles may display mock handwriting. A page containing a majority of mock letters may also contain conventional letters.
Let’s take a couple of minutes and look at ways adults can support children’s writing through the various stages.