Early Writing
Early writing in preschool is a developmental process that begins long before children form recognizable letters or words. It is rooted in play, talk, movement, and mark-making. At this stage, writing is about building the foundations for communication, not producing conventional spelling or neat handwriting.
Early writing is underpinned by children’s physical development. Before children can write with control and confidence, they need strength, stability, and coordination throughout their bodies — particularly in the core, shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands.
What Is Early Writing?
Early writing refers to the ways young children explore and express meaning through marks, symbols, drawings, and early letter-like forms. It includes:
- Scribbling and mark-making
- Drawing to represent ideas or experiences
- Using symbols or shapes that carry meaning for the child
- Attempting letter shapes or writing their name
- Pretend or role-play writing (e.g. making lists, cards, signs)
These behaviours show children beginning to understand that marks can convey meaning.
What Early Writing Looks Like in practice
In a preschool environment, early writing may look like:
- A child making marks and explaining, “This says my mum came to pick me ”
- Scribbles, lines, dots, or spirals created with increasing control.
- Drawings with added marks that represent writing.
- Making cards, certificates, letters and pictures for home
- Name writing attempts using letters, shapes, or approximations.
- Following lines, creating shapes and practicing the shapes required for later letter writing- lines, circles and reversals
- Small part work
- Running cars along tracks and lines
- Cleaning, sweeping and pouring
- Outdoor play
- Cutting, ripping and tearing
These examples reflect purposeful communication, even when the writing is not yet conventional.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the hands and fingers and are essential for controlling mark-making tools. In preschool, these skills are developed through purposeful play rather than formal writing exercises. Activities such as manipulating playdough, using tweezers or pegs, threading beads, construction play, and drawing or painting all help children develop grip strength, finger isolation, and hand–eye coordination.
Core Strength Development
Strong core muscles provide the postural stability children need to sit upright and use their arms and hands effectively. Without adequate core strength, children may tire quickly or struggle to control tools. Core strength is developed through active play, including climbing, balancing, crawling, pushing, pulling, and outdoor physical activity.
Shoulder, Elbow, and Wrist Pivots
Writing is a whole-arm process that develops from large to small movements:
- Shoulder pivots allow children to make large, sweeping marks and are supported through activities such as painting on vertical surfaces, large-scale mark-making, and outdoor
- Elbow pivots enable more controlled movements and develop through activities like table-top drawing, construction, and tool
- Wrist pivots allow for refined, precise movements needed for controlled mark-making and later letter These are strengthened through activities such as painting, drawing, using small tools, and fine manipulation tasks.
All of these pivots must be secure before children can manage the fine, controlled movements required for writing.
How These Skills Are Developed in Practice
These physical skills and strengths are developed through a balance of continuous provision and structured, guided experiences.
Alongside this, more structured and guided tasks are used to target specific skills. These experiences are planned in response to individual children’s starting points as well as the broader developmental needs of the cohort. Small-group or adult-guided activities may focus on developing grip strength, improving postural control, or refining wrist and finger movements, always within meaningful and engaging contexts.
Within continuous provision, practitioners carefully select resources and design provocations that naturally encourage the development of strength, coordination, and control. Open-ended materials such as loose parts, malleable materials, construction resources, mark-making tools, and sensory experiences allow children to practice and refine these skills independently and repeatedly.
This balanced approach ensures that all children are supported to make progress from where they are, building the physical foundations necessary for confident and successful early writing.