Contributions of emergent literacy skills to name writing, letter writing, and spelling in preschool children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.03.002Get rights and content

Abstract

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. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. 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. 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. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. 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. 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.

Highlights

► We examined what emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children's early writing attempts. ► Name writing was predicted by print knowledge and letter-writing skills; whereas letter writing was predicted by alphabet knowledge, print knowledge and name writing skills. ► Spelling is a developmentally complex skill beginning in preschool and was predicted by letter writing, blending skills, print, and alphabet knowledge.

Section snippets

Contribution of emergent literacy skills to name writing

Despite 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. Given that a child's name is among the first things that children write (Both-de Vries and Bus, 2008, Both-de Vries and Bus, 2010, Clay, 1975, Martens, 1999), examining what skills contribute to name writing will add to our current understanding of writing

Contribution of emergent literacy skills to letter writing

In addition to examining which emergent literacy skills contribute to name writing in preschool children, we were also interested in examining which literacy skills contribute to letter writing. As mentioned previously, no study to date has examined skills that contribute to letter writing, so we investigated potentially important literacy skills (alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and name writing) that could contribute to the development of letter writing. Letter

Contribution of emergent literacy skills to spelling

According to the comprehensive review by National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; Lonigan, Schatschneider, & Westberg, 2008) four emergent literacy skills play an important role in the development of children's spelling skills include alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, print knowledge, and name-writing. We briefly review the research below.

The term alphabet knowledge is generally used to refer to young children's ability to identify letter names and letter sounds, and it has been shown to

Present study

To summarize, we have little understanding of the componential skills that contribute to name writing and letter writing – two of the earliest writing attempts of young children. Hence, aims of this study included examining the componential skills that contribute to children's name writing and letter writing. Although several studies have investigated the contributions of various emergent literacy skills to spelling (see NELP 2008 report), the contribution of these various literacy skills to

Participants

Participants for this study were recruited from 30 different private preschools and public and private child-care centers in a moderate-sized city in north Florida. These preschools and centers served students from a diverse range of socioeconomic status (SES); six schools were categorized as high-SES (less than 25% of students receive subsidies), 11 schools as mid-SES (25–49% students receive subsidies), and 13 schools as low-SES (75%+ students receive subsidies). Informed consent forms were

Results

Means and standard deviations for the emergent literacy measures are presented in Table 1. Internal reliability coefficients (αs) for all measures for the sample included in this study are also shown in Table 1. Large variation was observed in children's alphabet knowledge, letter-writing skills, and their spelling skills. The scores for the spelling task were normally distributed (skewness = .24, kurtosis = −.55). As expected, some ceiling effects were noted in children's name-writing skills. The

Discussion

The goals of this study were to examine the shared and unique contributions of emergent literacy skills to name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling skills, as well as the concurrent interrelations between these writing skills in preschool children. The analyses revealed that print knowledge and letter writing were both uniquely related to children's name-writing skills. In addition, print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, and name writing made unique contributions to children's letter-writing

Conclusion

Writing development is not an all-or-none phenomenon. Perhaps knowing how to write one's name signals the start of a developing knowledge of the alphabetic principle (Adams, 1990, Both-de Vries and Bus, 2008, Treiman and Broderick, 1998); whereas knowing how to write letters beyond or apart from one's name may signal an increased sensitivity to and knowledge about the alphabetic principle. The results of this study lend further support to the fact that letter writing is a good reflection of the

Acknowledgments

Support for carrying out this research was provided in part by grant P50 HD052120 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and by a Postdoctoral Training Grant R305B050032 and grant R305A080488 from the Institute of Education Sciences. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the funding agencies.

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