## 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 and other symbols to record information and communicate for a variety of purposes.

#### Skill Progression: Use writing and other symbols to record information and communicate for a variety of purposes

#### Age: 42-48 Months

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### Demonstrates awareness of uses for writing, and uses writing for these functions in "real" life and in play (e.g., scribble phone messages, make signs for block buildings, create cards, make tickets, etc.)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Have paper and pencil in the various play areas of the room. Encourage the child to make lists for grocery shopping in dramatic play, write a note to the principal in the literacy center, make signs for the roads and cars in the block area, create greeting cards in the art area, etc.

Elicitation Strategy

Observe the child’s writing efforts and encourage her to explain what she has written or drawn. Ask her to write her name on her work.

Behavior Observed

The child may include many different symbols in her writing, including drawings, simple shapes, letter-like symbols, and actual letters.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Provide visible models of letters for children to copy and paper with wide lines. Place writing materials in all areas of the classroom and encourage children to use them to express their ideas. Use a series of lines to illustrate how words have spaces between words. For example, ____ ____ __ __. (Maria loves her cat.) This helps children learn that each unit represents one word.

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/.