Page 101 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Learning to write

First attempts at writing may be quite accidental when a child moves a pencil across paper

or draws with a finger on sand, and achieves something like I or O. This is similar to

learning to speak where the child tries making various sounds and finally gets something
like ‘um-um’ which mother interprets as ‘yummy’, or ‘mom’ (“Yes, dear, mummy is

here.”).

Early attempts at writing also need to be recognised and acknowledged by teachers and
parents, using descriptive feedback, even if the scribbling is vaguely like a letter. For

example say: “This is exactly like an O! And this is like an E from my point of view.”

(that E has 5 horizontal lines, bears no relevance). Soon enough the child has more
awareness in their attempts to write and adding text to games and drawings. This text

should be acknowledged, even if it is illegible in the proper sense of the word, and the
child could be asked to read out the words they have written. For example the child has

drawn swimmers and next to them something in red lines. Mother wants to know if it is
the red sea. And the child explains the read lines mean “Do not swim in deep water.”

Ka varaseid kirjakatseid tuleb märgata ja tunnustada. Foto õpetaja Evelin Sarapuu.