Child Development Stages

The best part of your week is practice and games. You’re improving all the time.  You can't wait to get back on the ice.  But until then there's school and reading and writing which is not as much fun as hockey, right?  But if you want to be a leader in life, you have to be a reader.

Children can start the process of telling and “writing” stories as early as toddlerhood through scribbling and imaginative play.  They typically begin to write simple sentences and short narratives around ages 5 to 7, as their fine motor skills and understanding of language develop. 

The ability to write stories develops in stages alongside fine motor skills and cognitive understanding. To help and support children’s writing progression as best as possible, it’s important to understand the different writing stages.  Please note that the developmental stages overlap and the age references are a generalization.

Ages 2-4 (Emergent Stage): Children produce scribbles and random marks, which are precursors to writing.  They are learning that written symbols carry meaning and may tell stories orally while and adult writes them down (dictation).

Ages 4-5 (Transitional Stage): Many children begin writing some letters and basic words, such as their name, often using “invented spelling” (spelling words as they sound, like “kat” for “cat”).  They may start to understand the structure of a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Ages 5-7 (Early Elementary): Writing fluency begins.  Children start writing full sentences with basic punctuation and can write short paragraphs about personal experiences or simple narratives.  This is a common age for children to start writing their own short, simple stories.

Ages 8-11 (Elementary): Children expand their writing vocabulary, create more complex sentences, and start using different writing styles (e.g., narratives, opinion papers). They begin to learn how to plan, draft, revise, and self-edit their work.