Children's writing proficiency is task dependent: children use more advanced features on easier tasks and regress to basic features on harder tasks¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? The same child could spell a name or CVC word with real letters yet resort to random letters or pseudoletters on the Picture Description or Sentence Retell tasks. → Puranik 2011

Evidence¶

Puranik 2011¶

Puranik, Cynthia S., Lonigan, Christopher J. (2011). From Scribbles to Scrabble: Preschool Children's Developing Knowledge of Written Language. Reading and Writing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9220-8

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Cross-sectional analysis of 372 preschoolers' performance across five writing tasks of differing difficulty. The article reports that "Children used advanced writing features for easier writing tasks" but reverted to basic features or drawing on more challenging composition tasks, showing progression from scribbling to conventional spelling is task dependent.

"Children used advanced writing features for easier writing tasks (e.g., Write Name) but resorted to more basic features or even drawing when the writing task proved more challenging (e.g., Picture Description)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Older preschoolers outperformed younger preschoolers on most writing measures but not on the generative composing tasks — related
• Age differences on composing tasks (Picture Description, Sentence Retell) were not significant, unlike letter, name, and spelling tasks — related
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