In early literacy development, writing is the slow pulling apart of the sounds in a word. A child who is confident with phonetic letter-sound associations may write words with the symbols much before the child's young hand can form the letters. Often, attempting to sound out written phonetic words parallels this effort. However, reading and writing are distinctly different skills. If you observe your child writing, you will see that the child is literally writing the sounds he or she hears when saying a word. Inventive spelling is what you will see. Missing sounds in a word are to be expected and are not as important as ensuring the child's self-confidence. The more a child writes, is read to, and reads, the more the skill of spelling will evolve. For young children able to do extended writing, the moveable alphabet works beautifully. The Moveable Alphabet is made of steel and is excellent for Montessori environments.
