Why Is Writing Important in Early Childhood?

Writing is important in early childhood for a variety of reasons. While it may seem that children, even preschoolers, are too young to start writing, in reality, children of all ages can do so for as long as they have grown enough to distinguish between letters. As writing is an important skill for all ages, there is no reason to leave your children out of it. Let’s consider what benefits writing can offer to your child.

When Teach Children Writing? 

When considering if your child is too young to write, always test them. Make writing fun and enjoyable. Make games for kids and see how well they can name letters, trace them on paper and write them on your own. Teaching children how to write can take well over a year, so you will be in luck if your child has already learned to do so. If yes, let’s see what writing can do for your child: 

Expressing Their Ideas

Many children find it difficult to express their ideas. Luckily, by improving their writing skills, children will also learn how to express their ideas more easily. Start with simple topics, such as: 

• Describe your favorite toy, 
• Describe mommy, 
• Describe a family member, 

And offer children more freedom with each new task. Within a few months, children should be able to write on a variety of abstract topics as well, such as: 

• Describe your ideal vacation, 
• Describe your dream birthday gift, 
• Tell a story to an imaginary friend. 

Improving Their Fine Motor Skills 

Besides improving their idea-expressing abilities, a lot of children will benefit from an improvement in their fine motor skills. Already at the age of 7, children should be able to have easy-to-distinguish and read handwriting and should be able to trace complex forms on paper. The key here is to make children write by hand rather than typing. Teaching them cursive will also improve their fine motor skills. 

Creating and Recreating Texts – Recalling Ideas 

Recalling ideas is also an important aspect of growing up. Children who can recall ideas more easily are more likely to succeed in school and to do so with less effort. For this reason, you can pay someone to do an essay or a short story. Make the child read it several times and ask you questions. Then, they can retell the story in their own words. 

Improving Their Phonological Awareness 

Children may have difficulties understanding the complex phonological system of the English language. In reality, they can produce many words with no issues, but as school starts, their vocabulary should expand. They should be able to pronounce all the words correctly. Knowing how to write words properly also improves the child’s ability to pronounce and read. 

Improving Their Phonics

Improving phonics is also important, in particular, because English spelling is also difficult to master. In reality, many children struggle with English spelling, with very noticeable variations in the spelling of homophones – such as ‘should have’ spelled as ‘should of’. A similar phenomenon can be seen in endings – with ‘ar’ being spelled as ‘er’ (sugar vs. suger, for example). 

Final Considerations

With all this being said, writing is an important skill to master in early childhood. Although writing is a skill that is taught in school, starting a bit earlier is a no-brainer. In reality, starting up to a year earlier compared to school is good, while starting much earlier could be a big issue, especially considering that children may not have the ability to practice their fine motor skills to the extent. In any case, it is safe to conclude that children will benefit from practicing writing both at home and in school, and for a variety of reasons. 

Charlotte Banks

Charlotte Banks is a correspondent for a number of health-related blogs. She tries to grow with every new decision and to ensure that she stays on top of her field. She exercises every day and hopes to have a big family one day.