Understanding the Development of Writing Skills

Writing is the other side of literacy development and, again, it is an incredibly important basic skill for our children to acquire. Writing is a primary medium by which we communicate information and learning, problem solve and give our reflections, thoughts and feelings. Through writing, we can tell our own 'story'. Writing is made up of a whole range of complex individual skills that together allow us to put pen to paper. There is the skill of actually forming letters in the correct way and joining them up to make words, there is the skill of spelling those words in the right way, and then there is the whole business of developing writing fluency and competency to express ourselves through the written word.
In our present education system, with its test/exam-based written assessment, the reality is that writing is all-important to success. Children are expected to write down what they know. Even if they could answer every question given verbally with incredible accuracy, clarity and good articulation, this would not be enough. Tests, such as SATs and the exams of the future, must be read and then answered in writing. Our society assesses children not on what they know but what they are able to write down. This puts children with writing or spelling difficulties in a unfortunate position. Although there is more understanding about dyslexic problems than ever before, this is not really taken into consideration when it comes to testing what they know.
So how do we learn to write? As we know, all young children enjoy drawing and painting - making their mark on paper (or sometimes on the wall) and writing is an extension of drawing in the sense that letters are markings with meanings. Children gradually acquire an understanding of the meaning of these markings as they develop reading skills in conjunction with writing skills. Children cannot write until they have developed sufficient hand control to hold a pencil and can determine how it moves about on the page. Writing too is a matter of practice, practice and more practice. The more adept children become at forming letters, the easier it will be to join them together to make words and then sentences. Writing fluency only comes when children no longer have to concentrate on how letters and words are formed - their hand automatically forms them - and their writing flow can keep in line with their thoughts.