Adapted from the work of Richard Gentry & the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale, The Wright Group
Scribbling
Scribbling looks like random assortment of marks on a child's paper.
Sometimes the marks are large, circular, and random, and resemble drawing.
Although the marks do not resemble print, they are significant because the young writer uses them to show ideas.
Strings of Letters
In the strings-of-letters phase, children write some legible letters that tell us they know more about writing.
Children are developing awareness of the sound-to-symbol relationship, although they are not matching most sounds.
Children usually write in capital letters and have not yet begun spacing.
Beginning Sounds Emerge
At this stage, children begin to see the differences between a letter and a word, but they may not use spacing between words.
Their message makes sense and matches the picture, especially when they choose the topic.
Initial, Middle, and Final Sounds
Children in this phase may spell correctly some sight words, siblings' names, and environmental print, but other words are spelled the way they sound.
Their writing is readable.
Transitional Phases
This writing is readable and approaches conventional spelling.
The writing is interspersed with words that are in standard form and have standard letter patterns.
0 - 12 months
- Make eye contact with you and use gaze to direct attention
- Take turns and interact in little social games such as "Peek-a-boo"
- Imitate some gestures and sounds
- Understand a few simple commands such as "Don't Touch"
- Respond to "no" and his/her name
- Vocalize to gain attention with cries, sounds and babbling
- Gesture: i.e. shake/nod his/her head, clap hands, point, finger plays, etc
12 - 24 months
- Steadily increase vocabulary
- Use a wide range of sounds (b, m, p, t, d, n, many vowels)
- Use jargon - practicing conversational patterns, but not saying anything meaningful
- By age 2, should be putting 2 words together. Words should include names, locations, actions, descriptors, polite words
- Recognize many new words
- Point to 3-5 body parts
- Follow a one-step direction and some routine 2-step directions
- Listen to a short familiar story and attend to activity 2-6 minutes
- Say own name
- Words may not be clear, but a familiar listener should know what they're talking about most of the time
2 - 3 years
- Experience an explosion of vocabulary (up to 350 words)
- Begin using sounds (f, k, g)
- Understand most of what is said to him/her
- Combine a minimum of 3 words (me go car:, "more juice please)
- Sit and listen to a familiar story and have a little conversation about it
- Comprehend concepts of space (in, on, under); size (big, little)
- Identify some familiar objects by function i.e 'what do you eat with?'
- Follow a series of 2 commands i.e take off your coat and put it in your cubby
- Ask and answer simple questions i.e 'Where's Mommy?'
- Use plural and possessive endings i.e cats, cups and Daddy's car
- Use pronouns such as "I, me, you, mine"
- Expresses more complex ideas but speech may show some hesitations and repetitions
- Generally, pay attention to a toy or other activity for 5-8 minutes
- Be understood much of the time, but will still make errors in sound production
3 - 4 years
- use 800 - 1700 words
- Articulation is generally developed except for (r, l, s, z, th, sh, ch)
- Asks many questions, ("who, what, where, why")
- Uses pronouns: he, she, they, our, etc.
- Uses "is/are/am" consistently and moves them around in the sentence for question forms
- Sequencing simple stories and talks about what happened, is happening and will happen
- Formulates longer and more complex sentences for negatives, questions, etc
- Understands simple number concepts, same/different and primary colors
- Follows longer more complex commands
- Uses language to interact and cooperate in play with peers
- Be intelligible even to an unfamiliar listener
- Attend to an activity for 8-10 minutes
4 - 5 years
- have an average sentence length of 4 - 5 words
- Focus on an activity and manage to listen and follow direction at the same time. Stays with one activity 12-13 minutes
- Understands the concept of time (yesterday, next month, etc.) and more advanced number concepts
- Uses past and future tense correctly
- Understands the concepts of rules in play
- Comprehend more advanced prepositional concepts such as: between, above, below, etc
- Attend to and follow 3-step directions
- Compare, contrast and categorize objects
- Asks what words mean and defines a few words
- Uses irregular grammatical forms ( plurals and past tense)
5 - 6 years
- answer "what would happen if... questions
- Understands opposites
- Carry on a logical conversation and tell stories
- Use all pronouns correctly as well as more advanced word endings such as 'slowly' or 'biggest'
- Tells left from right
- Uses language to bargain and negotiate with peers
- Uses sentences that are close to simple adult sentences in terms of formulation
- Using all sounds including the consonant blends (st, dr, pl, etc.)
Long Hill Montessori School
Email: LongHillMontessoriSchool@gmail.com
Website: www.LongHillMontessoriSchool.com
Location: 158 Central Avenue, Stirling, NJ, United States
Phone: (908) 647-1852