One of the best things about developmental writing is that children can write about anything they want to write about! This isn’t ‘spelling’; it’s hearing a sound and writing the letter that goes with that sound. Here are some ideas on how you can support your child’s writing progress!
- Encourage them to think about what they want to say or what they want their picture to say. It’s important for children to realize that their words will be telling a thought or a story.
- Repeat their sentence to be sure that’s what they want.
- Determine what developmental stage your child is writing at to know how many sounds they might be able to identify.
- Have them say the first word and ask what sound they hear. Depending on the stage of writing, help them isolate the first sound.
- Looking at an alphabet picture chart, help them match the sound with the beginning sound of one of the pictures. Help them name the letter, if necessary. Have them write the letter, and move on to the next sound.
- At first, skip over blends (sh, ch, th), sounds that are inconsistent (like many of the vowel sounds) and silent sounds.
- Reread the sounds/words your child has written several times while you’re working your way through the sentence. This will reinforce letter sounds.
- When the sentence is complete, name and use the appropriate punctuation (usually a period).
- Somewhere on the page, in small print, write what the letters/sounds say so I will know at school what they wrote about.
- As your child progresses through the developmental stages of writing to the "Words" stage, some rules and some sight word spellings can and should be introduced.
- THE VERY BEST WRITING IS THE WRITING THAT YOUR CHILD WANTS TO DO- WRITING FOR REAL REASONS.
- Grocery list
- Daily diary
- Christmas or birthday wish list
- Letters to friends & family
- Thank you’s
- Invitations
- Story writing
- Messages
- ‘To do’ list