EDU 280
Stages of
Writing Development
Stages of Pre-Writing Skill
Development (Physical Domain)
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Stage 1 Palmar-Supinate Grasp
(1 and 1.5 year olds)
Held with fisted hand
Wrist slightly flexed
Wrist slightly supinated away from midposition
Arm moves as a unit
Stages of Pre-Writing Skill
Development (Physical Domain)
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Stage 2 Digital-Pronate Grasp
(2 and 3 year olds)
Held with fingers
Wrist straight
Wrist pronated
wrist slightly ulnar deviated
Forearm moves as a unit
Stages of Pre-Writing Skill
Development (Physical Domain)
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Stage 3 Static Triposture
(3.5 and 4 year olds)
Held with crude approximation of thumb, index,
and middle fingers
Continual adjustments by other hand
Ring and little fingers only slightly flexed
Grasped proximally
No fine localized movements of digit
components
Hand moves as a unit
Stages of Pre-Writing Skill
Development (Physical Domain)
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Stage 4 Dynamic Tripod Posture
(4.5 and 6 year olds)
Held with precise opposition of thumb, index,
and middle fingers
Ring and little fingers flexed to form stable arch
Wrist slightly extended
Grasped distally
(Test by drawing tiny circles)
• All stages overlap and children progress and
reach writing stages at many different ages.
• The development of early writing skills is another
aspect of the child's emergent literacy
development.
• Regardless of which stage the child is, writing
development can be enhanced through being
encouraged to write on a regular basis.
• Children should never be discouraged from
exploring writing by the means they are able to
do, whether it be scribbling, letter strings,
invented spelling, or conventional spelling.
Preliterate: Drawing
• uses drawing to stand
for writing
• believes that
drawings / writing is
communication of a
purposeful message
• read their drawings as
if there were writing
on them
In the drawing and picture writing stage, children begin to
express their thoughts and feelings, the pictures are
usually unrecognizable.
Preliterate: Scribbling
• scribbles but intends
it as writing
• scribbling resembles
writing
• holds and uses pencil
like an adult
Scribbling
• Scribbling looks like random assortment of
marks on a child's paper.
• Sometimes the marks are large, circular,
and random, and resemble drawing.
• Although the marks do not resemble print,
they are significant because the young
writer uses them to show ideas.
Early Emergent: Letter-like forms
• shapes in writing
actually resemble
letters
• shapes are not
actually letters
• look like poorly
formed letters, but are
unique creations
Letter-like forms
• Letter-like forms emerge, sometimes
randomly placed, and are interspersed
with numbers.
• The children can tell about their own
drawings or writings.
• In this stage, spacing is rarely present.
At this stage, the child begins to draw
somewhat recognizable shapes and
may tell about the picture. The child
may try to imitate writing, as well.
Emergent: Random-letters or
letter strings
• uses letter sequences
perhaps learned from
his/her name
• may write the same
letters in many ways
• long strings of letters
in random order
Strings of Letters.
• In the strings-of-letters phase, students
write some legible letters that tell us they
know more about writing.
• Students are developing awareness of the
sound-to-symbol relationship, although
they are not matching most sounds.
• Students usually write in capital letters and
have not yet begun spacing.
The Writer:
• Assigns a message to own symbols
• Understands that writing and drawing are
different, e.g. points to words while reading
• Is aware that print carries a message
• Uses known letters or approximations of letters
to represent written language
• Shows beginning awareness of directionality; i.e.
points to where print begins
Transitional: Writing via
invented spelling
• creates own spelling
when conventional
spelling is not known
• one letter may represent
an entire syllable
• words may overlay
• may not use proper
spacing
• as writing matures, more
words are spelled
conventionally
• as writing matures,
perhaps only one or two
letters invented or omitted
The child begins to use some letters to match sounds,
often using a beginning letter to represent the whole
word. They may begin to use left to right progression,
but letter reversals are still common
At age 5, Joshua uses his emerging knowledge of letters
and sounds to label his drawing “Me AND MM” (Me and
Mom) and tell about one of his favorite things to do: “IPLW
MOM” (I play Legos with Mom).
Fluency: Conventional spelling
• usually resembles
adult writing
At this level children spell most words correctly, though
phonetic based spelling still comes into play when they
must spell longer words.
They begin to use punctuation marks correctly and use
capital and lower case letters in the correct places.