North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

Subdomain: Foundations for Writing

Goal: Children use knowledge of letters in attempts to write.

Skill Progression: Use knowledge of letters in attempts to write

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

No observable skills

2-4 Months

No observable skills

4-6 Months

No observable skills

6-8 Months

No observable skills

8-10 Months

No observable skills

10-12 Months

No observable skills

12-15 Months

No observable skills

15-18 Months

No observable skills

18-21 Months

No observable skills

21-24 Months

No observable skills

24-27 Months

No observable skills

27-30 Months

No observable skills

30-33 Months

No observable skills

33-36 Months

Attempts to make first letter of own name, but the appearance is unconventional

Knows letters are made of lines and curves, combines lines and curves in creative ways to represent letters

36-42 Months

Scribbles begin to resemble letter-like designs (mock letters), uses scribbles frequently

Draws known letters in unique ways, using segments and sequences of marks

42-48 Months

Begins to write the letters of own name; marks begin to resemble actual letters in the child’s name, although some letters, such as those with diagonal lines (e.g., K, N, M, Y), are difficult

Organizes marks that serve as writing “words” in a linear fashion, and in rows

48-54 Months

Writes letter-like forms along with scribbles to represent writing

Asks about spelling, spacing of words

54-60 Months

Replaces scribbles with letter approximations and actual letters

Writes a few words correctly from memory (e.g., a few names and common words, such as No, Yes, Love, Mom, Dad, and Dear)

Writes at least the most commonly first-learned letters: B, D, S, T, O, A, H, K, M, and C

Writes simple consonant-vowel-consonant words

 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.