Writing Developmental Milestones

By 12-13 months
Your child should be able to: Grasp a crayon and shove it around on a piece of paper

By 16 months
Your child should be able to: Scribble

By 29-30 months
Your child should be able to: Colour and paint

By age 3
Your child should be able to: Draw a vertical line Hold a pencil in writing position

By age 4 to 5
Your child should be able to: Make squiggles that look like letters Make recognizable drawings Make horizontal lines Copy a circle and a square Draw people

By the end of Kindergarten

Your child should be able to: show an awareness of conventions in written material. For example, she should understand that text is written left to right, words have spaces between them, and that words have both capital and lowercase letters. use phonics to decode or spell familiar, predictable words write simple sentences correctly spell words that have been identified by the teacher on charts or lists in the room, or on individual word lists begin to use capitals and periods be developing legible printing begin to leave spaces between words when writing

By the end of Grade One

Your child should be able to: use phonics to decode or spell unfamiliar words write simple but complete sentences correctly form the plural of single-syllable words use periods, commas, and capitals when reading or writing correctly spell words that have been identified by the teacher on charts or lists in the room, or on individual word lists use capitals to begin sentences and to differentiate names, days of the week, or months of the year print legibly leave spaces between words when writing write by organizing details into a logical sequence with a beginning, middle and end

By the end of Grade Two

Your child should be able to: use the concept of paragraphs and begin to apply it in writing begin to use dialogue in writing use common punctuation and capitalization start to learn about different styles of writing persuasive, opinion, realistic fiction, procedural

By the end of Grade Three

Your child should be able to: use correct subject-verb agreement when writing use nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs correctly use irregular plurals correctly such as deer, children use apostrophes in contractions, for example, can not = cant use exclamations use phonics and spelling rules when spelling use a variety of sources to check spelling of unfamiliar words divide words into syllables use prefixes, suffixes, and compound words use titles and subheadings to organize writing print legibly and start to use cursive writing (handwriting) instead of printing use paragraphing use new words, phrases or figures or speech that theyve heard revise their own writing to create and illustrate stories practice varied styles of writing persuasive, opinion, realistic fiction, procedural, report

Between Grade Fours to Eight

Your child should be able to: identify and write parts of speech and devices like similes and metaphors write stories that include the major elements of time, place, plot, problem and resolution practice varied styles of writing persuasive, opinion, realistic fiction, procedural, report begin to write essays cite outside sources to support their ideas begin to learn how to correctly reference sourced materials write on a specific topic and understand what style is needed revise their own writing for details and clarity of meaning

Information compiled from: http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/ResourceCentres/PrematureBabies/Looking Ahead/ReadingandWriting/Pages/default.aspx http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-writing_6506.bc http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/all_reading/milestones.html