The write start - Jennifer Hallissy 2010

Scribblers
On the Write Track

Scribbling is essentially Writing Readiness 101 for little kids. While creating each messy masterpiece, young children are actually developing and refining the foundational skills that support writing success.

Although it may look random, much is going on during scribbling. As they scribble, children are mastering the motoric challenges of holding and controlling a writing tool. They are experiencing the cause and effect between their movement and their marks, and they are beginning to coordinate their eyes with their hands. They are learning to regulate the speed, force, and direction of their strokes. And they are starting to connect strokes to make shapes, pictures, and symbols that they can use to tell a simple story.

There are even distinct stages that emerge within the scribbling stage. What makes one scribble different from another, you ask? The emergence of recognizable strokes, for example, is one way to quantify scribbling progress. Usually vertical scribbles emerge first, then horizontal, and then circular scribbles.

You can also look for open versus closed strokes. Open strokes are the strokes that go on forever, or back and forth, without a distinct beginning or end (you know those circles that become endless spirals?). Closed strokes have a beginning and an end. They are the starting point for making the shapes that will later turn into drawings and the symbols that will become the letters of the alphabet.