Scribbling and drawing circles really are developing beginning writing skills.
It
is important to encourage children to write and help them
develop a love of writing. Beginning
writing
is simple at this stage; little children making their mark on paper.
(and sometimes on the walls or carpet or couch....)
For many children writing and coloring is a favorite activity. This is great for their beginning writing development. They can be encouraged by giving them access to appropriate and fun materials to write with and by involving them in real-life writing throughout the day.
At this beginning writing stage, they are not ready to learn to write the letters. There is no place at this stage of development for handwriting practice. That will certainly come later. But for now, just let them enjoy discovering things about writing.
At the beginning writing stage, children are learning to scribble. They learn to make vertical and horizontal lines and then circles.
Materials to write with:
- Crayons
- Pencils
- Pens
- Markers
- Watercolors
Materials to write on:
- Paper
- Advertisements
- Cardboard
- Envelopes
- Notebooks, sticky notes
This is also a great time to do activities that build fine motor skills and hand strength. Here are some suggestions:
- Play with play-dough
- Use a spray bottle
- Use an eye dropper
- Use puzzles, pegs, blocks, construction sets
- Tear paper, crumple it up and throw it
- Build with pop-beads and other interlocking toys
- Pop bubbles on bubble wrap
Children are naturally excited about their own names. As your child learns to recognize his own name, encourage him to try writing something to represent his name if he wants to. He may draw a version of the first letter of his name. It will be recognizable to him as his name. Encourage this type of behavior. Through this, he is learning that a person (himself included) can make marks on a paper that are a way of communicating with others. This is an incredibly important discovery!
For young babies:
- Let your baby "draw" with chocolate pudding on her high chair tray.
- Sprinkle a tiny bit of brightly-colored powdered drink mix into vanilla yogurt. Let your child stir it and see the colors mix together.
- Put a little shaving cream in the bathtub at bath time and let your child "draw" on the tub with it. Then wash it off in the bath!
To see all of the skills in the awareness and exploration stage, click on the links below:
Letters and Sounds
Sight Words
Vocabulary and Oral Language
Concepts About Print
Phonological Awareness
