In order for me to become a confident writer, there are some skills I need to learn first…

Communication, speech and language skills; you can help me to learn to listen, give attention, understand language and how it is formed.

I need you to talk and read with me, respond to what I communicate, teach me words and how to speak in sentences.

Physical skills

Gross motor and fine motor skills.

I also need to develop the muscles in my arms, wrists, palms and hands. Do you know I have 27 bones, 34 muscles and 100 ligaments in each hand!

Writing is difficult! There are so many skills that I need!
I need to develop my executive function skills, including working memory and speed of retrieval from my long term memory.

Executive function is my ability to:

• hold information in mind (remember things)
• focus my attention
• regulate my strong feelings and behaviour.
• plan what to do next
• focus my thinking
• monitor what I am doing and adapt
• be patient
• bounce back when things get difficult (resilience).

What does your emotionally available adult need to know about you?

What about the marks you make? 

If you watch me carefully you will notice that I make marks all around the environment: in sand, with paint, in mud, with crayons, in runny glue, in playdough, hand prints, footprints.

As I play I am making my mark upon the world.

Sometimes I make marks that give me a sensory experience.

Sometimes I make marks that say something important, like my name. I need you to make marks alongside me as we play.

If you write a shopping list in the home corner, I will write one too. If you write a birthday card to your mummy, I will write one too.

Your emotionally available adult will…

• value the marks that you make by showing interest, ‘Mmm, I’m interested in this blue line, I like how you’ve drawn lots of dots really fast! I wonder what this little circle is about?’
• scribe your stories, the meaning of your drawings or mathematical graphics for you. (asking your permission or writing on a separate sheet of paper)
• be alongside and mark-make with you, imitating and sharing ideas, ‘I can see you’re drawing zig-zags, that’s a good idea, I’m going to imitate you and draw zig-zags too, up, down. ’
• enjoy mark-making as a pleasurable experience alongside you.
• model different mark-making movements big, small, quick, slow, hard, soft.
• model making different shapes; circles, zig-zags, lines, dots, crosses and letter-like shapes.
• use words to describe the marks we are making, ‘dot, dot, dot,…looooong lines, round circles.’
• tell you about the different marks that I am making and encourage you to talk about yours.
• listen attentively to you when you communicate about your drawings and early writing.
• value your marks by photocopying them, displaying them, sharing them with your family.

Your emotionally available adult will…

• celebrate your early attempts at graphic representation, whether drawing, symbols, numerals, letters – focusing on the meaning and content that you are communicating.
• model and encourage you to make signs for a shop or car wash, a shopping list, a recipe, a label for your model or instructions for planting seeds or making bread.
• support you in recognising and writing your own name using a name card.
• explore a range of different scripts with you, especially those familiar to you.
• make your own books, writing your own stories or retelling familiar stories.
• talk to you about the letters that represent the sounds that you hear at the beginning of your name and other words.
• model how to segment and blend the sounds (phonemes) in simple words and how the sounds are represented by letters (graphemes).
• encourage you to apply their own grapheme/phoneme knowledge when you write.
• support and scaffold you to write throughout the day.