Introduction to Early Writing: From Speech to the Page

Welcome to one of the most fascinating topics in Component 2: Child Language (9EN0/02)! We often think of writing as simply putting letters together to form words. However, for a young child (between ages 0 and 8), learning to write is a complex, creative journey. It does not begin with neat handwriting; it begins with speech, gestures, and drawings.

In your exam, you may receive a multimodal text produced by a young child—complete with doodles, scribbles, reversed letters, and inventive spellings. Your job is to decode how these early visual and physical marks work alongside speech to create meaning. Don't worry if this seems tricky at first: once you learn the developmental frameworks, spotting these features becomes straightforward and rewarding!

Quick Exam Fact: Component 2 is a 1 hour 15 minute written exam worth 45 marks (20% of your total A Level). It assesses three equally weighted areas (15 marks each): AO1 (Linguistic analysis and terminology), AO2 (Theories and developmental models), and AO3 (Contextual factors like audience, purpose, and adult scaffolding).

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1. Multimodality: Gesture and Drawing as Precursors to Writing

Children do not jump directly from speaking to writing in full sentences. Writing emerges as a multimodal semiotic process. This means children use multiple modes—talk, physical movements, drawings, and marks—to make meaning long before they master conventional letters.

Key Theorists: Vygotsky and Kress

  • Lev Vygotsky (Sociocultural Theory): Vygotsky argued that physical gesture is the earliest visual sign of communication. He famously described gestures as "writing in the air". As children develop, written marks become solidified gestures. Furthermore, Vygotsky saw drawing as a crucial symbolic bridge (or pictorial precursor) to writing. Through social interaction and scaffolding within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), an adult or teacher helps the child turn these visual symbols into formal written language.
  • Gunther Kress (Multimodality): Kress observed that young children are natural meaning-makers or "bricoleurs" (craftspeople who use whatever materials are at hand). Children place drawings and early written marks side-by-side because their drawings carry semantic weight—meaning that their drawings show complex ideas that their early spelling cannot yet encode.

Analogy to remember this: Think of a child's drawing like the scaffolding around a new building. The drawing holds up and plans the meaning while the formal writing skills are still under construction.

Key Takeaway: Never dismiss a child's drawing as simple "decoration" or "filler" in exam data. Analyse how the drawing carries meaning and supports the emerging text!

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2. Recognisable Stages of Emergent Writing

As children experiment with pencils, crayons, and paper, their marks follow a recognisable developmental sequence (identified by researchers such as Barclay, Clay, Ferreiro, and Teberosky):

  1. Scribbling / Graphic Practice: Random, unconstrained mark-making. The child is exploring fine motor skills and enjoying the physical cause-and-effect of making marks on a page.
  2. Mock Handwriting (Wavy Scribble / Linearity): Marks begin to form horizontal lines across the page. The child is mimicking the visual flow and rhythm of adult writing, even though there are no actual letters yet.
  3. Mock Letters / Letter-Like Forms: The child draws pseudo-letters using basic geometric shapes (circles, crosses, vertical lines). These look like letters, but are unstandardised, invented shapes.
  4. Random / Conventional Strings of Letters: Real letters of the alphabet appear (often letters from the child's own name), but they are written in random strings without clear letter-sound correspondence (e.g., "XTOAL").
  5. Transitional / Semi-Phonetic Stage: The child begins using inventive spelling. Letters are deliberately chosen to represent the most noticeable speech sounds (salient phonemes), such as initial and final consonants (e.g., writing "ct" for "cat").
  6. Conventional / Standard Orthography: The child understands standard spelling rules, word spacing, and morphological conventions (like past-tense -ed endings).

Memory Trick: Remember the progression as S-M-M-R-T-C: Scribble \(\rightarrow\) Mock handwriting \(\rightarrow\) Mock letters \(\rightarrow\) Random strings \(\rightarrow\) Transitional phonetics \(\rightarrow\) Conventional writing.

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3. Graphological and Mechanical Concepts for the Exam

When analysing the visual appearance and mechanics of early writing (graphology and orthography), you must use precise linguistic terminology rather than everyday descriptions:

  • Linearity: Arranging letters and words along a straight, horizontal baseline across the page rather than scattering them randomly.
  • Directionality: Understanding that English writing moves systematically from left to right and top to bottom.
  • Letter Formation and Case Mixing: Moving from uncoordinated strokes to distinct ascenders (tall strokes in letters like b, d, h, t) and descenders (tails that drop below the line in letters like g, p, y). Young writers frequently mix UPPERCASE and lowercase letters (e.g., "mOnStEr"), often because capital letters are geometrically simpler to draw or because salient nouns feel important enough to capitalise.
  • Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence: The vital connection between a phoneme (a spoken sound) and a grapheme (the written letter or letter combination that represents it).

Gentry and Read's Developmental Spelling Stages

Children do not spell words incorrectly on purpose; they apply logical rules based on their current stage of development:

  • Pre-communicative: Random letters or symbols with no link to speech sounds (e.g., writing "BTRK" for "house").
  • Semi-phonetic: Abbreviated spelling using only the most prominent sounds, often single letters (e.g., "u" for "you", "mpt" for "empty").
  • Phonetic: Systematic mapping where every surface sound in the spoken word is given a letter (e.g., "sed" for "said", "wun" for "one").
  • Transitional: Visual rules and basic morphological awareness are applied, though standard spelling is not fully achieved (e.g., "egle" for "eagle", "highked" for "hiked").
  • Conventional: Standard English spelling is mastered.

Classifying Orthographic Errors (AO1 Terms)

When a child makes a spelling error, classify it using these precise terms:

  • Omission: Leaving out letters, especially unstressed vowels or silent letters (e.g., "snak" for "snake").
  • Substitution: Replacing one letter with another that produces a similar sound (e.g., "sop" for "soap").
  • Transposition: Swapping the order of letters around (e.g., "gril" for "girl").
  • Insertion / Overgeneralisation: Adding extra letters by over-applying a learned spelling rule (e.g., "walkted" for "walked", or "boate" for "boat").
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4. Functional and Genre Frameworks in Child Writing

Writing is not just about putting words on a page; it is about achieving a purpose. Examiners want to see you evaluate the purpose, function, and structure of the child's text.

A. Barry Kroll’s Stages of Writing Development (1981)

  • 1. Preparatory Stage (up to ~6 years): The child acquires basic physical mechanics (holding the pencil, forming basic letter shapes) and learns early spelling principles.
  • 2. Consolidation Stage (approx. 7–8 years): Writing closely reflects spoken language. Sentences are typically simple or compound, linked by basic coordinating conjunctions like "and" or "then" (parataxis).
  • 3. Differentiation Stage (approx. 9–10 years): Writing diverges clearly from spoken language. Children use varied sentence structures (subordination, complex sentences) and adjust their writing style for different genres and audiences.
  • 4. Integration Stage (mid-teens): The writer develops an authentic, confident personal "voice" and smoothly adapts style and register to suit complex purposes.

B. James Britton’s Functions of Writing

Britton identified three main functional purposes in children's writing:

  • Expressive Writing: The first type to develop. It is personal, conversational, and explores the child's own feelings and identity. It closely mirrors spoken conversation.
  • Poetic Writing: Creative and literary writing. It encourages aesthetic play, story crafting, rhythm, rhyme, and stylistic techniques.
  • Transactional Writing: Dispassionate, functional, and instructive writing. It is used to get things done (e.g., a recipe, rules of a game, or a non-chronological factual report). The writer detaches their personal emotions from the content.

C. Joan Rothery’s Early Literacy Genres

Rothery established four common genre structures found in early classroom writing:

  • Observation / Comment: A straightforward factual observation paired with an evaluation (e.g., "I saw a dog. It was soft.").
  • Recount: A chronological sequence of personal events. Typically follows a structure: Orientation (setting the scene) \(\rightarrow\) Sequence of events \(\rightarrow\) Reorientation (concluding statement).
  • Report: A non-chronological factual description of an object, animal, or topic.
  • Narrative: A complex fictional story structure following four key steps: Orientation \(\rightarrow\) Complication / Problem \(\rightarrow\) Resolution \(\rightarrow\) Coda (optional moral or concluding thought).
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5. Examiner Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them (9EN0/02)

Examiner reports highlight recurring errors made by students on this paper. Keep these top tips in mind to maximise your marks:

  • Avoid the "Graphology Trap": Do not write your whole essay about handwriting, backward letters, and pencil lines. Balance your answer across all linguistic levels: graphology, orthography, lexis, grammar, syntax, and discourse structure.
  • Do Not "Theory Dump": Never write an abstract paragraph explaining all of Kroll’s or Vygotsky’s stages without directly linking them to specific words and marks in the source text. Always use: Data Feature \(\rightarrow\) Linguistic Term \(\rightarrow\) Theoretical Context.
  • Keep Spoken and Written Terminology Separate: Do not use spoken language terms like "holophrastic", "telegraphic", or "babbling" to describe written texts, and avoid applying Chomsky's spoken LAD concepts to taught orthography.
  • Focus on the Child, Not Just the Teacher: While teacher feedback and prompts (scaffolding) provide useful context (AO3), ensure you spend the majority of your time analysing what the child produced.
  • Remain Objective and Linguistic: Avoid patronising or subjective judgments such as "The child writes nicely for a 6-year-old". Instead, write objectively: "The child demonstrates emerging semi-phonetic spelling, representing the salient consonant cluster /st/ in 'stop'..."
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Quick Summary Checklist

  • Gesture & Drawing: Visual precursors to writing; drawing acts as a semiotic bridge (Vygotsky, Kress).
  • Emergent Writing Stages: Scribbles \(\rightarrow\) Mock Handwriting \(\rightarrow\) Mock Letters \(\rightarrow\) Random Letter Strings \(\rightarrow\) Transitional Phonetic Spelling \(\rightarrow\) Conventional Orthography.
  • Mechanical Terms: Linearity, directionality, ascenders/descenders, case mixing, grapheme-phoneme correspondence.
  • Spelling Error Types: Omission, substitution, transposition, insertion / overgeneralisation (Gentry's stages).
  • Functional Models: Kroll's 4 stages, Britton's 3 functions (Expressive, Poetic, Transactional), Rothery's 4 genres (Observation/Comment, Recount, Report, Narrative).