EARLY WRITING

RESEARCH FINDING:

Children who are encouraged to draw and scribble "stories" at  an 
early  age will later learn to compose more easily,  more effect-
ively,  and with greater confidence than children who do not have 
this encouragement.

COMMENT:

Even toddlers,  who can hardly hold a crayon or pencil, are eager 
to  "write" long before they acquire the skills  in  kindergarten 
that formally prepare them to read and write.

Studies  of very young children show that their carefully  formed 
scrawls  have  meaning to them,  and that this  writing  actually 
helps them develop language skills.   Research suggests that  the 
best  way to help children at this stage of their development  as 
writers is to respond to the ideas they are trying to express.

Very  young children take the first steps toward writing by draw-
ing and scribbling or,  if they cannot use a pencil, they may use 
plastic  or  metal letters on a felt  or  magnetic  board.   Some 
preschoolers  may  write on toy typewriters;  others may  dictate 
stories into a tape recorder or to an adult, who writes them down 
and reads them back.  For this reason, it is best to focus on the 
intended meaning of what very young children write,  rather  than 
on the appearance of the writing.

Children  become more effective writers when parents and teachers 
encourage them to choose the topics they write about,  then leave 
them alone to exercise their own creativity.  The industriousness 
of such children has prompted one researcher to comment that they 
"violate the child labor laws." 


Applebee,  A.  N.  (1980).   A Study of Writing in the  Secondary 
School.  Urbana,  IL:   National  Council of Teachers of English.  
ERIC Document No. ED l97347.

Applebee, A. N. (1984).  Contexts for Learning to Write:  Studies 
of Secondary School Instruction.  Norwood, NJ:  Ablex.
   
Graves,  D.  H. (1983).  Writing:  Teachers and Children at Work.  
Exeter, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Harste,  J. C., et al. (1983).  The Young Child as Writer/Reader, 
and Informant.   ERIC Document No. ED 2344l3.

Walshe,  R.  D. (Ed.) (l98l).  Donald Graves in Australia--"Chil-
dren Want to Write."  Roselle,  New South Wales:  Primary English 
Teaching Association.