Young children naturally want to hear, see, and write their own name.

Infants quickly recognize their name when spoken; toddlers begin to recognize their name in print; and preschoolers make attempts at writing it independently.  Parents should not be surprised because a child’s name holds power—it sets him apart.  

Research shows that name writing meets a natural inclination in your child to develop self-awareness and ownership; at the same time, name writing provides a natural link between children’s oral and print language skills. Parents can easily foster emerging literacy through name writing.  Your awareness of the natural progression that your child follows while learning to write his name will prepare you to help him achieve this important literacy milestone.  Here are a few of the developmental steps that a child follows while learning to write his own name:

• Name writing begins around the age of three with circular scribbles.  When a three year old is asked to write his name the scribbles he generates appear unique from other drawings.
• An intermediate step is that his circular scribbles evolve into continuous, linear scribbles that begin to look more like letter formations.
• As a child nears mastery, a parent will see advances in the areas of spacing, letter order, and speed of writing.

Here are a few ways that you can support your child’s ability to write his name (and later literacy development):

• Label some of your child’s things.  This comes naturally for children in day care and preschool.  Allow your child to watch you label some of his things.  While doing so you might say, “G-E-O-R-G-E. George.  That means you…Your name—on your backpack.”  This kind of interaction becomes an important link between oral and written literacy for your child.  Encourage your child to label some of his things (even with circular scribble writing) and then offer lots of praise.  This is also a good time to talk about inappropriate places to write one’s name, like on a wall or a piece of furniture.
• Research shows that young children have an increased awareness of and ability to learn new words that contain letters from their own name.  So think out loud with your child about words that start with and contain the letters of his name.  You might say, “George starts with the letter ‘G.”  So does ‘go’ and ‘good’…what else?”  Talking about this while writing out the words teaches the oral-written language connection.  Your child will recognize those words with more ease simply because of the additional exposure to those letters during his earlier years.
• Research also shows that name writing provides a quick insight into a child’s literacy development. If your child does most other paper skills well—such as drawing, cutting, and coloring—but does not seem to follow the developmental pattern above, point this out to your child’s doctor or child care center director.  They may arrange for early literacy intervention services that will help your child become happy reader and writer.
• Finally, don’t forget to display lots of your child’s name writing attempts and save some of them too.  Both of you will be amazed at what he accomplishes between the ages of three and six.

Reference -  Haney, R. H. (2002). Name writing: A window into the emergent literacy skills of young children. Early Childhood Education, 30 (2), 101-105.

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