The damage caused by teaching children to write too early
They’re many split opinions on early hand writing skills amongst early year’s practitioners and parents. Many parents believe a child should be writing their names and other short words in order to be ready for the school transition. Many practitioners also share this belief and along the way have lost sight of best practice and what the EYFS is actually telling us in the development matters framework.
Let us look at the initial reason’s early years practitioners should not be teaching children to write….
- Most children simply are not ready
- The majority or early years practitioners are not qualified teachers and therefore do not have the correct training to teach writing
- The EYFS does not at any place encourage early year’s practitioners to teach children to write.
- The EYFS is a play based curriculum which leaves little space for formal teaching of writing, especially in preschool
- As practitioners, we should be advising parents on what a school ready child looks like and when children should be school ready (End of reception class) rather than ready for the transition to school (End of preschool)
- Teaching children incorrect letter formation means at school this has to be undone in order to teach children the correct way, this slows down the learning process and causes confusion
- Teachers have a specific curriculum to follow in order to effectively teach children to form letters and to write, many practitioners have not seen this side of the EYFS curriculum
- Recognising letters, understanding phonics and beginning to read all need to be achieved in order for a child to write, many of these skills are not held by a child in preschool
- The teaching of phonics incorrectly often does more harm then good and as discussed above causes confusion for children when they start reception and can hinder their development
Although practitioners and parents should not be specifically teaching children to write, there are plenty of skills and activities that can and should be completed to support writing skills when a child start schools. Some of these things include…
- Physical skills – Gross motor and fine motor
- Mark Making – Pencils, pens, felt tips, whiteboards, chalk, paints with sponges, brushes and fingers etc.
- Hand-eye coordination
- Access to written words including their names – Name tags, books, labels, word sheets
- Extend vocabulary through songs, rhymes and stories
- Manipulative skills such as playing instruments, Scissor skills, playdough, clay
- Encourage all children to actively learn, play and explore and create and critically think
- Follow all children’s interests
- All of the seven areas of the EYFS should be promoted
The more opportunity the children are given to learn the above skills, the better prepared and easier they will find it when it comes to being ready to write their names and other labels. A child will not be any more ready for the school transition because they are able to write their name. As practitioners the best thing you can do is give children time to develop skills through play and educate parents along the way about what is expected of a child starting reception.
There is no need or sense of urgency for any Reception age child to learn to read and write to accommodate or comply with school policy because each Reception age child is at a unique stage in their development.
The Reception Class teacher needs to be equipped with a range of skills to detect when a child is showing readiness to begin their journey as an emergent reader.
The School should also want Reception Class children to become not only competent but also confident readers and writers but they need to encouraged not coerced into it.
The classroom environment needs to attract and stimulate childish interest in their new environment – where tactile activities grab their attention.
For example:
(a) a four-year old who does not recognise their *name above eg a clothes peg, should have the option of a picture of e.g. a toy added above their name. After a few weeks they may confidentally recognise just their name above that coat peg and possibly on a card or list if the font style and size used is the same as the *original.
(b) only when Reception age children show an interest in writing should they be encouraged to learn write. This could be encouraged or stimulated through
providing activities where “free writing” in e.g. an “office area”, to observe how any child responds to the stimuli in that *”office area/writing corner”.
There should be free access *there to pencils of different thickness – and points also with different thickness of ‘lead’ (like felt pens) – and paper where free-play activity during this early stage of potential “formal writing” exercises is encouraged and observed.
We all want childhood to be a period of life where many new skills are learned and developed alongside communication and social skills amongst their peers.
Very informative. Really agree with all you have said, however, it would be greatly helpful if you could share the references for the information, incase we want to engage in further reading. Thank you
And this makes me think why we are far behind Naplan Result… As early we expose children to
literacy and numeracy the better we build a good foundation of these areas…. Eary childcare has a qualified teacher rhat they can always ask about on how to deliver these experiences to children.
This is so true, I am an EYT and preschool room leader, we have a strong emphasis on finger fitness, and have lots of activities for fine motor skills. We recently held a parents workshop about school readiness, and the emphasis was on the end of the EYFS being the end of reception. There is of course the odd child that writes their own name, and other familiar words…and you cant stop them, you find it on everything!!..and as the EYFS emphasises every child matters, so these children should not be held back. But other children should not be expected to do the same.
Brilliant article. I work in a day nursery in the 3 to 5 room we have plenty of mark making resources .
Children have name cards which they can access if they wish to and names on their drawers etc.
We also do dough gym sessions with the children especially the boys to develop their gross motor skills and they love it.
It is parents who believe they should be able to write when they start school. We have to try and explain it is their self help skills and building on friendships sharing etc that we need to focus on to allow them to have a smooth transition into school .
Thank you again
Dear Editor,
I came across your blog and really like what you’re publishing. I would like to publish a guest post on your website related to Education. I’d love the opportunity to contribute for your blog.
Let me know your thoughts. Have a great day!
Best Regards,
Ashley Steve
Hi Ashley
If you could email us on [email protected] and let us know what you would like to write about then we can move forward with this.
Many thanks
Early Years Careers Team
The best we can do for preschool children is to concentrate on fine and gross motor skills to build up the muscles in their hands required to hold and use a pencil correctly. The reason for joined up writing (cursive) is so that when children write it is continuos which helps the brain to cope better with spelling and letter formation especially with dyslexic children as when we stop writing to move onto the next letter we are cutting brain function each time to start again and it is not so fluent. More songs books and rhymes please xxx
Didn’t know the reason behind cursive, but can see now why it is done. Thank you.
Ive been in childcare 24 yrs and frame work changed so much we did used to get em to write own name then told not to ha ha wish theyd make up their minds
Totally agree there not ready !
When they are you will still end up teaching your child to write correctly.
So many children can not write by even by yr3
. At school before a child can even print letters in the correct formation they are being told to join up ?Whats that all about ?
Practice Practice Practice the old way !
Its very informative and helpful..I especially like article about why practitioner should not teach writing at early age to children.as too much pressure is given to practitioners by parents and supervisor to teach writing before child transition for reception. Now I have some reasons to tell them all
Thanks