Nurturing Little Writers: A Parent's Guide to Prewriting Development (Ages 2-5)

Nurturing Little Writers: What does the scribbling to words trajectory look like?

Introduction

"He never picks up a crayon at child care, I don't have markers at home because it's dangerous, he might draw on the walls"

Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." And drawing on the wall would could be one of those 10000. My point is they need space and opportunity to develop their skill, themsleves as a person.

The grapho-motor skill of holding a pen to draw elaborate shapes and alphabet symbols begins long before your child picks up their first pencil. As a parent invested in your child's development, you're about to discover how ...

.....every scribble,

..........every finger-paint masterpiece, and

...............every shape drawn in the sand is building the foundation for your child's future writing success.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the fascinating progression of prewriting skills,the product ⟶ ‘what ends up on paper’. Backed by current research and enriched with practical activities you can start today.

There are many factors that orchestrate children picking up a pen and moving from

scribble ⟶ drawing ⟶ refined shapes & letters.

During this blog, we are looking at the product, how kids generally progress from scribbling to writing.

Understanding the Development Timeline

Every child's journey in writing development is unique, but it generally follows a natural progression. While individual paces vary, there are typical milestones for when most children achieve certain levels of complexity in their writing skills.

Embracing Neurodiversity

As a parent of a neurodivergent child, you might sometimes feel like certain milestones are out of reach. Time and time again, we've witnessed neurodivergent children achieving unexpected breakthroughs later in their development when it was thought they were never going to. So relax a bit, take heart, these moments can be truly awe-inspiring, as skills that once seemed challenging suddenly appear effortless.

The power of persistence is real! Remember those times of anxiety, when you provided extra scaffolding, support, and prompting to engage your child in drawing and writing all to find all that effort to by that new toy or resource was in vein, because your child took one look at it and moved away? Your efforts to find 'the hook', to keeps them interested are invaluable. You're helping build crucial neural pathways for writing and drawing skills for you child.

Practice Makes Progress

Regardless of a child's neuro-differences, engaging in fun and motivating practice is key to mastering writing skills. The goal is to make repetition enjoyable, encouraging your child to keep trying and improving.

Unlock Your Child’s Potential: A Magical Journey Through Scribbles to Sentences!

The Marvellous World of ‘Scribbles’

Kids begin by learning to hold tools that aren’t pens or crayons. For example in play they like to hold blocks and build, bring them together with both hands in the midline and pulling them apart, and swap objects across hands which is helping their brain feel how it feels in each hand.

Unleash your child’s experience of scribbling with chunky crayons and chalk and paint brushes. Their little hands yet don’t have the skill fingers working in intricate ways so thick tooks help them feel the object against their skin in space and help them learn how to move their wrist separat from their hand and fingers.

Just watch in wonder as your little one discovers the power and excitement of intentionally making a mark.

The ‘Line’ Adventure

As kids practice controlling the tool, by mastering directional movements. Witness your child moving from random scribble to trying to intentionally draw purposeful strokes. Encourage up and down and side to side movements. This leads onto more controlled scribble circles.

Making ‘Shapes’ and ‘Diagonal’ lines when it’s raining in their picture.

Unlock the secret of handwriting, Shapes are the building blocks of letters. the curves and diagonal lines of letters can be drawn more easily with the practice of these movement in circles, ovals, squares and triangles.

There are developmental milestones guidelines for all of the shapes. You can help by modelling drawing these shapes in simple pictures.

The ‘Name’ Game

There is real thrill and recognition in recognising their name. Make letters exciting try to encourage tracing or writing their name in kindergarten. You can make letter tracing exciting draw faces thru them, buidl excitement to help your child to try and practice. Kids tend to move to writing their name and alphabet letters and this is often achieved through tracing.

‘Sentence Safari’

By tracing, children gain the muscle memory and confidence needed to move from guided practice to independent writing. Really celebrate you child starting to spontaneously write letters and words, even if you can’t recognise what it says. It’s magic to witness a child’s first self written sentence!

Remember, parents, grandparents, teachers, therapists: you’re the guide on this thrilling expedition of drawing and writing development. The process of learning to draw and write is crucial in helps kids forge intricate neural pathways, honing their attention to detail and focus. Each child’s path is unique, filled with unexpected surprises and triumphs. Embrace every moment - from coaxing them to pick up that crayon, to celebrating each scribble, wobbly line, creative spelling, and those "masterpieces" that you might be tempted to "just fix up a bit."

Here's the heart of it: it's not about the outcome, but the journey. Yes, it sounds cliché, but it's true. What matters is the process – the fusion of you child’s intention and the ‘doing’ of the multiple steps to produce a drawing or piece of writing. Whether you, as the parent, are thrilled or slightly perplexed by the result, remember this: if they've attempted and tried and they've had fun (even if they've pushed through to start, knowing a reward awaits), then you've struck gold. These moments of effort, these bursts of expression – they're the real treasures, leading to more effortless mastery sometime down the track. So, let's celebrate every attempt, every creative leap, for in these lies the true magic of their development.

I have made a free comprehensive guide to walk you through the fascinating progression from scribble to handwriting.

To Summarise

Developmental Progression: The journey from scribbling to writing words follows a natural progression: scribbles → lines → shapes → letters/words. This aligns with well-established graphomotor development theories, guiding children through the essential stages of fine motor skill development.

Process Emphasis: The importance of valuing the process over the outcome is highlighted, with a fitting nod to Thomas Edison's ethos on persistence and experimentation, emphasizing the learning journey over perfection.

Resource Availability: A free, comprehensive guide is offered, equipped with research-backed milestones and practical activities. This resource aims to meet parents' needs for The knowedge on this topic for you to generate some ideas, gain concrete tools to support their child's writing development.

Unlock your child's writing potential today—click here to download our free, expert-backed guide filled with proven activities that can turn everyday moments into powerful learning opportunities, all while keeping your walls intact!

This guide combines developmental theories with practical experience to provide you with the most effective summarised understanding so you can support your child's prewriting development. For specific concerns about your child's development, always consult with your paediatrician, occupational therapist or review with another allied paediatric professional as you see fit.