Poster #86 - The Relation Between Early Writing and Self-Regulation in Preschool

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Writing skill and development in preschool is a consistent, direct predictor of later reading success (NELP, 2008), yet children struggle to develop this critical skill (NCES, 2012). It is possible that early writing development is hindered by deficits in behavioral self-regulation (Puranik, Boss, & Wanless, 2018), but little is known about the role of self-regulation in early writing development. The present study seeks to examine the possible relations between behavioral self-regulation and early writing in preschool.

Hypotheses: Two research questions were examined: (1) What are the characteristics of early writing across four widely-used tasks in fall and spring of the preschool year? and (2) How is self-regulation related to writing for each task concurrently and across time? For question one, we expected children to vary widely but generally increase in their writing skill across the school year. For question two, we expected self-regulation to be more related to story-writing than to word-writing or name-writing tasks, and more related to word-writing than name-writing due to the increasing complexity of the task and subsequent increase of cognitive load. We also expected that this relationship may change over time as children build skills.

Study Population: Two hundred and two preschool children between 34 and 70 months of age (M = 48.88, SD = 6.95), 50% male (n = 101), were recruited from Head Start, state-funded Pre-K, and university laboratory schools.

Methods: Children were assessed by trained research assistants in the fall and spring of the 2011-2012 preschool year on name writing, letter writing, word writing, and story writing tasks, as well as a direct measure of self-regulation. Unlike previous studies, writing across tasks was coded on nearly identical scales. Name and letter writing were coded as 1 = drawing/scribbling, 2 = letter-like shape(s), 3 = incomplete name or inaccurate letter(s), 4 = accurate spelling. Word and story writing were coded as 1 = drawing/scribbling, 2 = letter-like shapes, 3 = incomplete or inaccurate letters (no accurate sounds), 4 = initial or advanced sounds, 5 = accurate spelling.

Results: Children demonstrated growth from fall to spring in each writing task, and their performance indicated the following rank order of ascending difficulty: letter, name, word, story. Correlations showed self-regulation in the fall was significantly correlated with each writing task in the fall (rs .279-.456), and in the spring self-regulation was correlated with all four writing tasks (rs .247-.415). Regression models indicated that children who scored higher on self-regulation in the fall were more likely to score higher on each writing task in the fall. This same pattern was identified for fall self-regulation predicting spring word writing while controlling for children’s fall writing. However, fall self-regulation was not found to predict spring name, letter, and story writing while controlling for children’s fall writing.

Discussion: Study results indicate that a variety of writing tasks are accessible to and appropriate for young children, and while self-regulation is related to writing it may not be as defining for children’s growth as their initial writing level.

Authors

• Kyla McRoy, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Hope Gerde, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ryan P. Bowles, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author