In some early classrooms, children compose sentences aloud while an adult writes them down. The intention is usually a good one. Teachers recognise that handwriting and spelling can place heavy demands on young writers and they want children to focus on their ideas rather than struggle with transcription.
However, this practice can unintentionally create a powerful misconception: that composing aloud is an appropriate substitute for writing.
When adult scribing becomes the main way children ‘write’, children may learn that writing is something adults do for them rather than something they are utterly capable of doing for themselves.
This is problematic because writing development depends on children practising both composition and transcription together.¹ Fortunately, early writing strategies such as emergent writing and ‘kid writing’ allow children to do exactly that from the very beginning of Nursery.²
What oral composition gets right
Oral rehearsal is a powerful tool for young writers. Saying your texts, sentences, phrases and words before you transcribe them to paper helps children:
- Organise their ideas.
- Gauge people’s reactions to their ideas before they commit them to paper.
- Hear and adjust their sentence structures.
- Try out vocabulary choices.
Teachers should model oral rehearsal strategies regularly in writing lessons and make it part and parcel of children’s writing process.³ For example:
“Let me look at my drawing. Ah, yes. I want to write about Buster, my dog, running to the front door to see me. Let me say the sentence first: Buster ran to the door to see me.”
This kind of modelling shows children that writers plan language before writing it down.
Talk also plays a crucial role in writing development. When children discuss ideas, characters and events, they practice the language structures that later appear in written texts. Opportunities to talk about texts at a discourse level (whole ideas, narratives and information) are strongly associated with later writing success.⁴
The problem arises when oral composition replaces writing rather than supports it.
When talking replaces writing
If children rarely attempt to record their own ideas on paper, they lose opportunities to develop two essential abilities:
- Transcription – forming letters and spelling words on the page.
- Composition – shaping ideas into written language.
We know writing develops through the interaction of composition and transcription.¹
When adults do the writing, that learning opportunity disappears. Children may still generate ideas orally but they do not practice:
- Segmenting sounds.
- Choosing letters.
- Shaping sentences on the page.
- Managing the physical act of writing.
Over time, this can lead to slower development in both transcription and composition.⁵
What emergent writing makes possible
Emergent writing recognises an important developmental truth: Children can communicate meaning in writing long before they master conventional spelling and handwriting.
Young children often combine several forms of representation in a single piece of writing:
- Drawings.
- Marks and shapes.
- Letter-like forms.
- Conventional letters and words.
Together, these elements carry meaning. Typically, the drawing represents the main idea, while the marks and letters represent specific words or phrases.
The resulting text may not resemble conventional adult writing but it is still genuine composition. The child is deciding:
- What to say.
- How best to represent it on paper.
This allows children to begin composing texts from the very start of Nursery or Reception.²
The role of ‘kid writing’
Once phonics and encoding instruction are introduced (in earnest), children should transition to using ‘kid writing’. This is where children write their words and phrases using a mixture of:
- Conventional spelling for words they do know.
- ‘Informed spellings’ based on their phonics knowledge.
- A line for the sounds or words they don’t know how to spell yet.
The typical process would look like this:
- The child looks at their drawing.
- The child says their sentence aloud.
- The child transcribes what they know to paper.
- The teacher undertakes underwriting to provide the conventional adult spellings underneath.
This approach achieves two goals. The child controls the composition and attempts the spelling. The teacher still exposes the child to correct written forms.
Why independent writing matters
When children commit their own writing ideas to paper, several important learning processes occur:
- They practice encoding. Each informed spelling requires children to segment sounds and select letters. This strengthens their phoneme-grapheme knowledge.⁵
- They practice sentence construction. Children must decide how to express their ideas in written language. This develops their early compositional skills.⁶
- They see themselves as writers. Ownership matters. When children produce their own texts, they begin to view writing as something they can do independently – without constant adult supervision or intervention.⁷
- They write more. Children who are allowed to control their compositional process produce plenty of texts. Increased writing frequency and volume will invariably lead to faster compositional (and transcriptional) development.
What happens when adult scribing dominates
When early writing experiences are replaced by a heavy reliance on adult scribes and oral composition, several limitations will emerge. Children learn that:
- Writing requires adult assistance.
- Writing is a performance for the teacher rather than an independent act.
At the same time:
- Opportunities to practice encoding decrease.
- Writing frequency and volume drop.
The result is slower progress in both transcription and composition.¹
What effective early writing instruction looks like
Strong early writing classrooms combine several elements:⁵
- Daily phonics instruction.
- Daily handwriting instruction and practice.
- Spelling instruction.
- Loads of meaningful, motivating and engaging writing experiences.
Within these classrooms:
- Children learn to talk about their ideas.
- Drawings are accepted as supporting children to transfer their ideas from their mind onto paper in preparation for transcribing.
- Emergent writing, ‘kid writing’ and informed spellings are used as temporary scaffolds while transcription is developing.
- Teachers engage in underwriting alongside their pupils.
In this environment, oral rehearsal supports writing rather than replaces it. Children speak their ideas, draw their ideas, and then write them. And most importantly, they learn from the very beginning that writing is something they can do themselves.⁷
Children learn a lot about writing by writing…
References
- The research on developing children’s transcription and compositional skills [LINK]; Visualising The Science Of Writing: The Writing Map Explained [LINK]
- Debunking edu-myths: ‘Emergent writing’ isn’t necessary before teaching children to write [LINK]; Supporting children’s early word writing [LINK]; Debunking edu-myths: Children should only write words they can spell [LINK]
- Developing Children’s Talk For Writing [LINK]
- Kim, Y. S. G., Park, C., & Park, Y. (2015). Dimensions of discourse level oral language skills and their relation to reading comprehension and written composition: An exploratory study. Reading and Writing, 28(5), 633-654. [LINK]
- Supporting children’s early word writing [LINK]
- How do we develop writing fluency? [LINK]
- Getting children up and running as writers [LINK]; How to teach writing in the EYFS [LINK]