Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to examine if and how emergent literacy skills (alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, print knowledge) contribute to preschool children’s early writing attempts-name writing, letter writing, and spelling.Ĭontribution of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writingĭespite an interest in name-writing skills and its important role in the development of literacy, only a few studies have systematically investigated which emergent literacy skills contribute to children’s abilities to write their names. The few investigations of spelling in preschool children have focused on providing qualitative descriptions of their spelling abilities and have been “directed mainly at describing what children do, instead of how they do it” ( Ouellette & Sénéchal, 2008, p.196, emphasis in the original). Although there is a sizeable amount of research on children’s spelling, there have been few investigations of spelling in preschool children compared to the number of investigations of spelling in kindergarten or grade school children, and in these few investigations, spelling has been used primarily as a variable to predict current or later reading outcomes (e.g., McBride-Chang, 1998 Richgels, 1995 Richgels & Barnhart, 1992 Stage & Wagner, 1992). To be able to spell, children need to draw upon and use several emergent literacy skills, which is why spelling is considered a good reflection of children’s understanding and learning of the alphabetic principle ( Ehri, 2000 Shatil, Share, & Levin, 2000 Treiman, 2006) and a good predictor of their reading skills ( McBride-Chang, 1998 Richgels, 1995 Richgels & Barnhart, 1992 Stage & Wagner, 1992 Tangel & Blachman, 1992).

The ability to spell words signals a major milestone in children’s literacy acquisition.

Also among children’s early writing endeavors are their attempts to spell single words. A few studies have examined the component skills that contribute to name writing, but no study to date has examined skills that contribute to letter writing. Although we have learned a great deal about the skills that contribute to or lay the foundation for early reading, we know less about the skills that contribute to young children’s early writing. Conventional writing begins with children either writing letters or writing their names. Hence, it is a tremendous accomplishment when young children begin writing. Writing is a difficult task, both for beginning and mature writers. Spelling is a developmentally complex skill beginning in preschool and includes letter writing and blending skills, print knowledge, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. Children’s letter-writing skills may be a better indicator of children’s emergent literacy and developing spelling skills than are their name-writing skills at the end of the preschool year. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. Both name-writing and letter-writing skills made significant contributions to the prediction of spelling after controlling for age, parental education, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge however, only letter-writing abilities made a significant unique contribution to the prediction of spelling when both letter-writing and name-writing skills were considered together. Print knowledge and letter-writing skills made positive contributions to name writing whereas alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, and name writing made positive contributions to letter writing. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. The purpose of this study was to examine which emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children’s emergent writing (name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling) skills.

Cat in initial spelling alphabet