Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy writing explosion in 4 1/2 year old?

Hello-- I ran into something with my DD that was unexpected and I'm not sure what to do about it (if anything), so I thought that I'd throw it open to the board for suggestions. My DD, a balanced, very fluent Spanish/English bilingual, had been writing words and short phrases here and there (in Spanish) and then a few weeks ago (over the course of a weekend) had an explosion in her writing ability. She's been writing phonetically correct (and usually correctly spelled) 20 to 30 word sentences in Spanish (her comfort language) with no instruction or assistance from us at all (she wants us out of the room while she composes her messages on the whiteboard). We've never done any instruction in reading or writing whatsoever (we're parents that believe in a lot of free play for preschoolers).

The words are crammed together, but the sentences are easy to read if you ignore the spacing. Then, about a week ago, she spontaneously wrote a 15 word sentence in English with only two misspellings (again, no correct word spacing). We had no idea she could even write in English. The vocabulary she's using in both languages is pretty advanced for her age. She wants us to read her sentences out loud on the whiteboard and then we write her sentences in return that she reads out loud. She thinks this is very fun, especially when we write her silly sentences. She doesn't appear to want any assistance with this from us, other than the appreciation of her sentences and the written sentences in return. She's a very independent learner in general.

Another parent of an older child told me that when kids first start writing, it's important to just encourage them so they think writing is fun. So that, and the return messages, is all we've been doing.

Did anyone else's kids do this? How did you handle it? I'm thinking that it seems advanced given the length and fluency of the sentences and the two languages since she's four (she's got good handwriting for her age). But I don't even have a point of reference since she's my first and only. Maybe it's more typical than I think? Or typical of kids on this board? She had profoundly early and profoundly fluent language development and speaks like a much older child in both languages. She's a kid who LOVES languages, words, puns, plays on words, etc.

I want to make sure to support this/encourage this in a developmentally appropriate way as needed. And I want to make sure I shouldn't been doing something more. Thanks so much!

DS started doing a lot of writing at 4 -- he would write stories (heavily plagiarized) about his favorite characters, notes to all his friends (who couldn't read yet), and even made a couple of "newspapers" with little stories and a weather report. I'm still mad at DH, 7 years later, for throwing that one away.

DD7 has been writing for a couple years now, but I'd have to look back in her "box" to see when it started. She writes (also heavily plagiarized) stories about the characters in books she's reading.

DS grew to hate writing (and reading) and almost can't be tortured into it now, but I think that's just him -- I don't get the feeling that DD will grow out of it.

We don't do explicit teaching. We make sure notebooks and writing implements are available all over the house. We leave our kids notes, and ask them to be responsible for writing the good stuff (ice cream flavors) on the shopping list sometimes.

We want it just taken for granted that when you're waiting somewhere, writing notes (especially in code) is just a fun thing to do. If they say "I'm bored" they get a pad and pencil. They've noticed that all the other kids get electronics while waiting. Ah, well.

Our DS, also 4.5, annotates his drawings with single sentences, but doesn't write long paragraphs yet. He is trilingual, and does this in 2 of his languages (the 2 he can read...), but still with lots of errors (he writes phonetically, except when he remembers sentences or words from his books; word separation is hit or miss. We tend to correct a couple of the errors at a time, if that. He enjoys it so much, and we don't want to ruin it. Sometimes he does ask how to write a word correctly, so he is learning...