Art Experimentation and Early Writing Go Hand-in-Hand

“For very young children, art and early writing skills are one and the same,” proclaims an article on the Zero-to-Three website.

“At first, it’s all about just figuring out what these cool things called crayons can do. Then your child discovers the link between her hand holding the crayon and the line she made on the page: Presto! She experiences the power of cause-and-effect. Imagine how exciting this must be for her! She can now make a real “mark” on the world. This leap in thinking skills is helped along by her new ability to hold things in her hands and fingers. The growing control your child has over the muscles in her hands lets her move a marker or paintbrush with purpose and with a goal in mind.”

Rebecca Giles, author of A Young Writer’s World: Creating Early Childhood Classrooms Where Authors Abound, believes that too often we fail to let children take their time experimenting for as long as they need with this blend of art and writing. She also believes we separate the mechanical process of writing from its purpose of communication. She told the story of when her son was in preschool and used a sticky note to ask her to get him a marker. She explained:

"Children discover the power of writing by writing for real and relevant purposes the same way they have seen adults write. I often used sticky notes to make lists. He [her son] was imitating that behavior on a sticky note in the form of picture writing and environmental printing and kid writing, but in a way that the message was clearly received. When children experience being able to communicate their thoughts and ideas in print, it’s very affirming. It’s also very motivational for them to continue to want to write."

A Young Writer's World invites you to celebrate and explore the world of words with your young ones – seeing letters and words in everyday life, connecting language with play on a daily basis, and entering into the delight of literacy, print, and connection with children as they become readers, speakers, and writers.

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