NAME WRITING AND THE PRESCHOOL CHILD (LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, PREOPERATIONAL, CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE, PIAGET).

Abstract

This study explored the construction of written language knowledge as evidenced by the changes in forty-seven preschool children's autographs. Throughout the school year children were asked to "write your name and draw a picture of yourself." The resulting name writing samples indicated that changes in children's autographs were not idiosyncratic but identifiable transitions in a cognitive constructive process as children gradually attempted to make sense out of written language by writing their names. Transitions identified in children's autographs included: graphic actions (scribbling); random graphemes dispersed within drawing; spatial differentiation between writing and drawing; zigzag lines; zigzag lines with graphemes; linear and eventually horizontal, discrete, letterlike strings; reduced number of graphemes; increasing number of pertinent letters in and/or out of order; appropriate number of placeholders and pertinent letters; recognizable letters; and, eventually conventional signatures. As children's autographs evolved over time they provided evidence that children construct knowledge about written language much as Piaget and others have suggested young children construct logico-mathematical knowledge; not by using adult logic but by trying to make sense of and understand written language. Conventional or even recognizable autographs did not suddenly appear or result from the copying of models. Rather, autographs evolved over time as children devised strategies and followed intuitive rules while solving the problem of distinguishing writing from drawing, generating the culturally significant actions involved in writing, discovering the distinctive orthographic features of letters, and eventually controlling the orthographic conventions of name writing. In addition to providing evidence for name writing as a constructive process, this study also presented information indicating that initially, name writing is ideographic and is not based on knowledge of letter names or understanding letter/sound correspondences. Name writing was also discussed as a significant sign of young children's emerging use of symbols. The conclusion was reached that name writing, when approached as a constructive process, is an appropriate curriculum component in preschool programs and an essential ingredient in the emerging literacy of young children.