May Early Lit Tip

Write

The skill of writing begins at an early age. Even though a one-year-old, for example, does not have the motor skills or reading recognition to write letters or words, their scribbles on a page are the initial steps to creating language. Activities such as scribbling, finger painting, or coloring, are the first steps to developing later skills such as handwriting. Eventually those scribbles and marks will turn into decipherable shapes and drawings, and then later into words and stories.

Every time your little one uses paper and crayon, paint, pencil, or pen to create, they are practicing a form of writing and building their fine motor skills. Telling a story through art means your child is thinking, observing, and creating. This predecessor to writing is the perfect developmental skill for babies and toddlers and helps them along the path to eventually writing letters, words, sentences, and stories as they grow.