## North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

#### Subdomain: Foundations for Writing

#### Goal: Children use writing skills and writing conventions.

#### Skill Progression: Use writing skills and writing conventions

#### Age: 33-36 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 33-36 Months.

### Makes marks that look like letter shapes

Situations for Observation of Skill

Provide a large piece of paper and markers so the adult and child have room to draw and write.

Elicitation Strategy

An adult draws a picture with the child’s help. For example, draw a train and tracks. Draw one track and ask the child to draw over it to make it thicker. Make rectangles for the engine and add one circle for a wheel. Ask the child to draw more wheels. Ask what else the train needs and add these with the child. For example, if the child says windows, add a square or circle with a cross ( ? ). Add a tree with branches, clouds, etc. After drawing the picture the child and adult label the picture, and put their names on the page.

Behavior Observed

The child’s writing has letter-like forms.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Children can now make all the directional marks needed to make letters. They just need to learn how to put these marks together in a meaningful way. Drawing and labeling pictures is one way for children to practice using refined movements and making intentional marks. Early childhood educators and parents can take dictation to write down what children want to say about their art or ideas. This allows children to hear and see the corresponding words and letters.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.