The Educational Value of WriteOn!

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The alphabet is everywhere in a child’s life. From the letters on toy building blocks to the child’s name stenciled on the wall in his/her room, children see these shapes and recognize at a very young age that these are important icons. Knowing and using these icons is how dad reads the newspaper every morning or how mom writes the grocery list she keeps on the fridge. As young children play “house” and other creative games in which they emulate adults, they crave the ability to read and write as independently and easily as they see the adults doing so in daily life. Although memorizing the alphabet can be as easy as regularly singing the “ABC” song, applying that knowledge to writing is a more complicated process.

Learning to recognize and recreate the alphabet is a gateway to a child’s development, both intellectually and emotionally. Once the alphabet is mastered, children can move on to applying the alphabet to both writing and reading words and sentences. This in turn leads to a greater knowledge and understanding of the structure and usage of language. Simply having a working knowledge of the alphabet when a child enters kindergarten provides him/her with an immense advantage, as it will facilitate a much easier introduction to language usage as a whole.

Learning to draw shapes (lines, circles, squares, triangles) is a milestone of transitioning into a higher level of cognitive development, and occurs about the same time as fine-motor skills become more developed. Around 4 years of age, a child enters the Preschematic Stage of creativity and is now able not only to draw the basic shapes, but is also able to copy them. From a cognitive standpoint, children are in the Preoperational Stage (identified by famed psychologist Piaget) and are able to understand, memorize, and use symbols as their language development grows. Entering these stages of creative and cognitive development provides an ideal learning situation to introduce a child to printing the alphabet: a child can use his/her ability to create controlled drawings (printed letters) with a pencil, copy images that resemble shapes he/she is already familiar with (circles, lines, etc.), and identify these images as letters that lead to forming words.

Write On! uses these principles of learning in its program to teach children to print the alphabet. Children are given a verbal description of how to draw each letter, and the descriptions are based on shapes that are already very familiar. As the verbal description is provided, so is a visual image of how each letter is drawn. Ensuring total access, the DVD is accompanied by the “Amazing Writer”: a book in which children can practice writing each letter as they hear and see how to do it. Children are entranced by the silliness of Professor Scribble, and enjoy learning and practicing their printing skills in their Amazing Writer along with Violet, guided by Amazing Bob. The program effectively addresses all aspects of the process of learning how to print, beginning with the basic yet essential posture and pencil grip for both right- and left-handed writers. Children who use the Write on! program will easily gain a fundamental advantage by acquiring and practicing the skills necessary to further their understanding and use of language.

RESOURCES:

- Research and information on teaching printing.
- U.S. Department of Education, information on Early Childhood Development.
- Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
- Stages of Creative Development.