A psychogenetic analysis of Spanish-speaking preschoolers' emergent writing: A developmental trajectory toward the phonetization of speech

This study explored the developmental writing progressions of 55 Spanish-speaking 4-year-old children who participated in an emergent literacy intervention at a nonprofit child care center in downtown Los Angeles over an 8-month period. As part of the emergent literacy program, a writing center was available and children participated in a variety of writing activities, such as journal writing, group story writing, dictation, labeling, and letter writing.;The purpose of the study was to examine (a) the early writing conceptualizations of 4-year-old Spanish-speaking preschool children immersed in a literacy-rich environment, (b) the nature of their name-writing development, and (c) the relationship between this name-writing development and the children's writing as a representational system. The children's written language conceptualizations were investigated through an analysis of Piagetian-inspired clinical interviews conducted during the 2000-2001 school year.;The children's written language conceptualizations were analyzed according to Ferreiro and Teberosky's hierarchical writing levels as described in their classic study Literacy Before Schooling. The present study investigated Latino pre-school children's written language interpretations longitudinally while they received early literacy instruction in reading and writing.