Classroom Writing Environments and Children’s Early Writing Skills: An Observational Study in Head Start Classrooms

Abstract

This study examined the classroom writing environment in 31 Head Start classrooms, and explored the relations between the writing environment, children’s (N = 262) name-writing, and children’s letter knowledge using pathway analysis. Our analyses showed that Head Start classrooms provided opportunities (i.e., writing materials and teachers’ facilitation) for children to develop early writing skills, though many classrooms lacked writing props (e.g., letter and word cards) for guiding children’s writing attempts. Teacher-child writing interactions occurred at a low frequency. The writing environment had a direct association with children’s name-writing skill, and children’s name-writing skill was positively related to their letter knowledge. Further discussion of the findings and future directions for research are presented.