From scribbles to scrabble: preschool children’s developing knowledge of written language
- 26 November 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Reading and Writing
- Vol. 24 (5), 567-589
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9220-8
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to concurrently examine the development of written language across different writing tasks and to investigate how writing features develop in preschool children. Emergent written language knowledge of 372 preschoolers was assessed using numerous writing tasks. The findings from this study indicate that children demonstrate knowledge about writing before beginning school and receiving formal instruction. There was clear evidence to support the claim that universal writing features develop before language-specific features. Children as young as 3 years possess knowledge regarding universal and language-specific writing features. Preschoolers appear to progress along a continuum from scribbling to conventional spelling. Although this progression is sequential, children’s writing proficiency is task dependent. Implications of these findings on writing development are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- The proper name as starting point for basic reading skillsReading and Writing, 2009
- An investigation of four hypotheses concerning the order by which 4-year-old children learn the alphabet lettersEarly Childhood Research Quarterly, 2006
- How is emergent writing based on drawing? Analyses of children's products and their sorting by children and mothers.Developmental Psychology, 2003
- Oral language and code-related precursors to reading: Evidence from a longitudinal structural model.Developmental Psychology, 2002
- Executive control in the revising of students with learning and writing difficulties.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1997
- Access to Print for Children of Poverty: Differential Effects of Adult Mediation and Literacy-Enriched Play Settings on Environmental and Functional Print TasksAmerican Educational Research Journal, 1993
- Emergent writing: young children solving the written language puzzleEarly Child Development and Care, 1990
- Developmental sequences in three‐year‐old children's writingEarly Child Development and Care, 1990
- “Functional Automaticity” in Children's WritingWritten Communication, 1988
- Writing in four- to six-year-olds: representation of semantic and phonetic similarities and differencesJournal of Child Language, 1987