WRITING

Writing is a difficult skill and, as most of us would readily agree, not only for
children. The development of childrens writing takes place gradually over
time. In order to achieve the most effective results, teaching writing needs to
be integrated with reading, speaking and listening, both in the initial stages
and as children develop greater language competence.
When children learn to write in their first language (L1), it is widely
acknowledged that they go through a number of general stages. These are
not discrete or age-bound and vary in different cultural and educational
contexts. They may be briefly characterized as follows:
Getting ready: Children acquire manual skills and learn the basic
mechanisms of handwriting and spelling. They may also be taught synthetic
phonics as part of a systematic initiation into reading and writing.
Writing for me: Writing is personal, colloquial, situational, linear and
context-bound. Children may be willing to alter spelling but not to revise, redraft or edit their work. Writing is mainly for personal pleasure and for an
immediate audience e.g. parents and teachers.
Writing for others: Children develop a greater sense of audience. This
raises awareness that successful writing depends on effective communication
rather than satisfaction with self. Structures of writing and speech become
more distinct; writing begins to be better organized and to become more
formal. Childrens writing e.g. early attempts at stories, begins to reflect
what they are reading.
A world of writing: Children are exposed to, and learn to use, an everexpanding range of writing styles. They develop an increasing awareness of
audience, purpose, genre and appropriateness.

As they learn to write, some of the main problems children encounter are to
do with:
Physical factors:
In the early stages, the development of hand-eye coordination and fine
motor skills needed to form letters is a challenge in itself.
Psychological factors:
Writing is an artificial activity: it has to be learned rather than acquired
naturally.
There is no immediate audience, feedback or interaction between the writer
and the reader.
School associations with writing are often negative. Writing is often perceived
as boring or a chore. Writing is also sometimes used by teachers for
discipline and control.
Childrens limited ability to produce comprehensible output can easily lead to
feelings of frustration and demotivation.
Linguistic factors:
Childrens L1 writing system may be different to English.

The sound-spelling correspondences in L1 work differently to English.

Language used in speech and writing differs, and is organized differently.
Children lack knowledge of writing conventions, or there is interference from
writing conventions in L1 which are different.
Cognitive factors:
Childrens stage of development in L1, including the development of literacy.
The organization of thoughts in writing is externally imposed.
The transfer of strategies from L1 doesnt always work.

Taken from: https://carolread.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/w-is-forwriting/