Celebrating Pathways to Joyful and Meaningful Writing with Young Children

Abstract

Writing instruction benefits all learners, but for the early childhood learner, the benefits are especially profound. Early writing instruction serves as a foundation for future literacy skills and an opportunity for learners to develop emergent writing skills. Early writing instruction enables young children to hone fine motor skills and document their thinking, while also supporting them on their nascent paths to develop their ideas into words, sentences, paragraphs, and more. Creating meaningful writing experiences in the early childhood environment affords teachers joy in the journey, while learners build on a natural curiosity for writing and develop creativity, critical thinking, and confidence in themselves as writers. This introduction provides an overview and roadmap of highlighted early writing facets, including writing development, teaching writing in early childhood settings, bolstering the reading–writing connection, and creating joyful and meaningful writing environments. It also serves as an introduction to (and celebration of) the broad range of timely and insightful articles in this special issue on Joyful and Meaningful Writing with Young Children.