by Young-Suk Grace Kim
Original article: LINK
This study looked at how well children write between the ages of 5-8. They checked how good their writing was, how fast they could write, their encoding/spelling skills, and their vocabulary use. They found that in second grade, how fluently children could write was connected to the quality of their writing. The study also found that how well children could encode, spell and hand write in first grade affected how good their writing would be in second grade, but only because it helped them write more fluently.
To learn more about developing children’s writing fluency, see this article.
Vocabulary knowledge in first grade was directly linked to good writing in second grade, even if children weren’t necessarily fluent writers yet.
Overall, the study suggests that how fluently children can write plays a big role in how good their writing turns out, and other skills like spelling and working memory can also indirectly affect their ability to write fluently. However, the researchers also caution that more research is needed to fully understand how this works, especially for different groups of young writers.
Educational implications
This study sheds light on how kids’ writing skills develop, particularly focusing on the relationship between how fast they can write (writing fluency) and how good their writing turns out (writing quality).
The findings showed that children who could write more in one go or write more words in total tended to produce better quality writing. This connection was partly because of their transcription skills (how well they could spell and write fluently) and partly because of their executive functions like working memory. Essentially, this suggests that teaching children to write fluently can lead to better writing overall.