Shaquania Whipple
The development of writing in early childhood is a combination of both mental and physical succession. Mentally, a child is developing skills of concentration, memory and language. Physically, the fine motor skills necessary to use the muscles in her fingers and hands for writing and drawing are being developed. Early childhood writing skills are best developed when a parent or caregiver provides opportunities for practice. The developmental changes in the writing and drawing skills of children between the ages of 2 and 5 years of age usually proceed through the same basic changes. The first stage is scribbling. Once the child develops the ability to hold an object in their hand it usually won’t be long before they are experimenting with crayons. Allowing children to scribble strengthens fine motor muscles and introduces children to writing. Between the ages of 2 and 3 the child’s scribbling becomes more controlled and they begin to form shapes. They may draw circles for faces and they will also begin to name their creations. This represents the child’s growing ability to create images that represent their view of the world. Between the ages of 3 and 4 lines and patterns emerge. The most common form is a person, by doing this children are creating a conscious form and drawings become more complex. They are also always searching for new images to represent and symbols can change often. I remember my daughter was always drawing pictures of our family and each member was represented in the drawing. She was proud to point out who which figure represented. Children are also practicing letters and words and recognize that some words are longer or shorter than others and they depict this in their writings and drawings. During the age of 4 to 5 pictures of objects or people are common and children begin to realize there are missing details in their drawings and will add them such as hair, hands, fingers and toes. Finally, letters and words are being formed. It has been shown