The Journey to Writing

In this series of guides, we will discuss how to support babies and young children as they progress from scribbles to writing. Progress is supported by you, in the early years setting and parents at home when children are provided with opportunities to make marks in lots of different ways.

The guides include ideas for resources, games and activities and observational assessments that will allow you to share information with parents, which will support children's home learning.

The guides are sequential and cover:

Journey to writing - a comprehensive overview of the skills, knowledge and experiences children need before they are ready to start writing in school.

Fine motor skills - a review of the fine motor skills children need to be ready for writing.

All about scribbles - the first stage for mark making when we see young children make random, uncontrolled movements - big loops, zigzags and messy marks.

All about lines - the next stage in mark making, as motor control improves and scribbles become more intentional and turn into straight lines, horizontal and vertical strokes and curves.

All about dots - this is the last stage because making dots requires more control and accuracy, so it typically develops after children can guide their hand more deliberately.