THE ENTRY IN

THE WRITTEN
Ana Teberosky

In this article we will deal with 'the entry into the written' through a des-
description -and interpretation- of how the child learns to write. This description is a
update of the first version of the 'levels' of writing development
(FERREIROandTEBEROSKY,1979).Weconsiderthisreturnnecessary,becausedespite
of the great influence they had on psychological and educational environments, still
there is a certain confusion today, not only regarding its use and application but also
well regarding the self-description. For researchers...
evolutionary description serves to provide a perspective on how to function
fromthechild'smind,andthisperspectiveandothersshouldconstitutepartofthefoundation
of pedagogical knowledge. Only a part, because it will obviously lack knowing
howtointervene,whatmodelsshouldbeproposedandhowitisadvisabletoevaluate,
aspects that complete this knowledge.

Regarding the description, we will update it considering two criteria:

on one hand, the type of correspondence established between letters and language
and, on the other hand, the level of conventionality of the lyrics. Their application results in
five levels of writing that served to describe most of the productions
infantile in girls and boys aged between four and seven years.

Writeasareproductionofthetraitsofadultwritng

At first, writing for the three and four-year-old child is to reproduce the
the action of writing through the imitation of the traits identified as typical of
adult writing (cursive or print). If the identified basic form is cursive

University of Barcelona.
Originally published in Catalan in issue 219 of the magazine GUIX (1996), pp. 3-10.
 92 I Teaching or learning to write and read? Theoretical aspects

it will reproduce related graphics; if the identified basic shape is print, it will reproduce
There are separate graphics. Children of this age often engage in activities.
with graphic actions of writing or drawing, but from a very young age they can differ
to differentiate both: those traits that have an iconographic resemblance to the referent
those identified as drawing, those who do not have it, as writing. This opposition is
the only evident to the observer because what was identified as writing remains
still undifferentiated in the graphic result; all graphic forms look alike among
Yes. However, at this stage, the intention may have been to produce brands.
different, but writing still cannot function as a vehicle for information.
At this moment it is also possible that the child, familiar with quantitative aspects-
labels of the references, such as measure, length, etc., try to assign a meaning-
make the graphic differences based on the quantitative differences of the reference
(thus, elephant will be longer and have more letters than ant). Also in the domi-
in the knowledge of numerical symbols, the smallest child establishes a
relationship of individual symbols with their referents. In this first process of
relation the child attributes meaning to written symbols. Now, this signifi-
The fall is global as well as the parts or the graphic units produced are non-
cleansable.

The first idea of girls and boys is that letters have the function of designating,
thatistosay,[Link]-
riches the first function attributed is to designate the quantities and the actions with
amounts(HIERBERT,1988).Themostbasicinformalexperiencesprovide
the child significant linguistic references to name objects, people, and
also for quantitative questions like 'how many are there', 'how much is it', etc. To
At the same time, he usually has informal experiences that allow him to identify actions.
with letters and with numbers (like reading, writing, having more, etc.), and also identifying
letters, numbers or symbols of actions or operations (for example: +, -, etc.).
Also in the field of letters and numbers, children of this age engage in
graphic activities where numbers and letters appear in interference, but from very
children can differentiate the function of both even when the graphical forms
they are still undifferentiated.

Writeasaformalyregulatedproductiontocreatewritngs
differentiated

Subsequently, the graphic forms acquire greater proximity to the letters.

conventional. On the other hand, the child who has been exposed to printed material can
to reproduce a quite varied repertoire of graphics. This second procedure
it implies a transfer of cognitive work from the imitation of the global action
towards the relationships between the written graphemes, and it will be the syntax of the graphemes (that is,
therelationshipsbetweentheglyphsandbetweenthesetofglyphs)thatwillgoverntheirhandling
[Link]
 The entry in the written I 93

regulated by the general quantities of many writing systems: linearity,

union and discontinuity, minimum number of elements and internal variety.

The child imposes certain formal (syntactic) restrictions on the notations of the
writing and other notational systems, such as numerical notation. In
a classification task of graphic material where there were loose and joined letters, shovel-
bras, drawings, loose and combined numbers, we find an early differentiation between
the properties attributed by the child to drawing, written language, and notes
tion of the quantities. Differences between iconic and non-iconic, between non-linear and linear
theyseparatethedrawingfromthewrittentext,differencesbetweenlooseandconnectedcharactersseparatethe
numerical notation of writing, differences between varied and repeated characters,
unique or together distinguish the writing of number notation. The results
Various studies show a clear evolutionary advance regarding the possibilities.
likelihoods of verbally specifying the conditions assigned to each system. Thus,
For example, children assert that 'nothing is said with just one letter,' or that (a few
(those repeated figures) are "numbers", whereas (a few repeated letters) "are not"
"They say nothing because they are all the same." These restrictions attributed to the graphic material-
they are also incorporated into the production itself. Thus, all their writings combine
such procedures to create graphics different from drawing, to put more than one
graphics and to vary within and between graphics. With a limited repertoire of graphics,
or when a strong influence of the model of one's own name occurs, it is usually
observe variations in the linear order of the position of the letters in order to express sig-
different [Link] named Dúnia wrote her name in the following way-
D U N, and all the other names with variations on the position: D N U, U N
D, N D U.

Approximately at this time, according to studies on development of the

writing, children continue to ascribe to the written a function of designation: this
the function is clear in tasks of interpreting labels on objects or on images
Genes, the children state that in what is written is the "name" of the object (a three-year-old child)
years and a half says "Here it says Coca-Cola," but he can't read). Not much later
children often reject the possibility of writing a denial like "there is no"
birds" because it seems contradictory to present a writing for the absence of the
regarding. Similarly, the possibility of writing a falsehood is rejected. The
[Link],ofabsenceand
of falsehood contradicts the interpretation of the function of writing as disig-
nation of the names ("true") of the referents. In addition to the function of
designation, there is data on recognition of the control function: the posters serve-
so that they do not enter
you know how many there are

Governed by syntactic relationships, with frequent presence of fixed models of

writing, applying the formal restrictions attributed to the written and with the function
 94 I Teaching or learning to write and read? Theoretical aspects

by putting 'names', children produce differentiated notations to write nom-

different. But it must be clear that there is no correspondence relationship.
term by term between the writing and the name, but this relationship is global and
remains non-analyzable.

Wretiasaproducoitnconrtoeldbyhtesyalbcisegmenatoitnofhte
word

It is at this moment that a relationship of correspondence begins to be established.

litigationtermbytermbetweenthegraphicpartsandthepartsofthename,through
theprocedureofsyllabicallysegmentingthenamebeingwritten.
Evolutionary studies indicate that this moment is of great importance because the
the child begins to establish a relationship with the sound aspects of language.

If we consider that written symbols are the external graphic entities that
they are in place of something else, which re-presents (and not just presents) something else, we can
Keep in mind that the numerical symbols are in place of quantities and the symbols-
Those of writing are in the place of language, of the sound aspect of language. This
being in the place of is the primary and most important function of written symbols. 2

Itisatthismomentwhenchildrenbegintoworkcognitivelywiththere-
connection between letters and sounds, because letters refer to parts of the nouns
brakes, they are in place.

This writing controlled by syllabic segmentation can be done with letters.

that acquire a conventional sound value or with any letter, because ini-
Specifically,whatcontrolssegmentationisthenumberofgraphemesthatmustbewritten.
[Link],[Link]
Catalan-speaking boys and girls use vowel sounds more often.
that the values of the consonants. Thus, for example, children write papallona
like AA O A, squirrel like A I O, tiger like I E, milk like E, banana like AA
ipastanagacomo A A A A, etc. But here it usually happens, as we have seen before, that
theformalrestrictionsimposedonthewrittentext,restrictionsregardingthefactthatnot
It is useful to put just one letter or that several repeated letters cannot be written because
theyareallthesame,theyarealreadyincorporatedintothechild'smentalrepresentationofwhat
it'[Link]-
tranthattheinteractionwiththeformalconstraintsalongwiththebeginningoftheanalysisof
the segmented sound elements lead the child to perform an analysis beyond the
syllable, to access intrasyllabic elements.

In psychology, the term representation refers to general mental activity, for this reason.
weprefertousethetermnotation.
 The entry in the written I 95

Wretiasaproducoitnconrtoeldbysyalbci-aplhabecitsegmenatoitn
becitoftheword

At this level, children produce works with syllable-alphabet correspondences.

Betic components. They use letters for intrasyllabic components, but some elements of the
syllablesremainwithoutnotation,whichiswhythenumberoflettersislowerthanthenumberofcon-
sonants and vowels of the word. Psycholinguistic research has demonstrated
thatthesyllableisaunitcomposedofnon-linearintrasyllabicelementsbut
hierarchically organized (TREIMAN, 1985). Thus, the syllable can be composed
for a vowel exclusively; for a consonant and for a vowel; for two conso-
nantesandavowel,andforaconsonant,avowelandasecondconsonantthatthe
closes. In this last case, the first level of the syllable is composed of the first with-
[Link]-
Gods indicate that access to initial consonants and vowels is easier than to
the back [Link] is why these consonants go [Link], in the
writing of the word mandarins is often found in productions of the type M A D
It'snotthatthechildhasforgottenletters,it'sthathehasn'tbeenabletoaccessseg-
to mention all the sound elements of the word and there are no more restrictions than -tal
As we have seen in the previous level - they can force you to put more letters or to analyze
to examine the word more thoroughly.

Wreti asconrtoeldproducoitnbyaplhabecitalsegmenatoitn
exhaustive of the word

At that moment we recognize an exhaustive alphabetical correspondence, to each

Aconsonant and a vowel in the word corresponds to a letter. But alpha correspondence-
Bética does not necessarily mean orthographically correct writing. In Catalan, for
example, for a common word but of foreign origin like pizza we can
find representations of digraphs or a single letter for a consonant segment
whichisnotaphonemeofthelanguage:PISA,PITZAorPITSA.

In the studies conducted comparing these writing levels with the

education levels, we have found that they are distributed in different ways
according to the school years. In a four-year-old Early Childhood Education classroom, the pro-
deductions follow the principle of imitating the traits of adult writing or pro-
formally regulated reduction to create differentiated writings. In a classroom of
Five-year-old Early Childhood Education productions are distributed among writing for-
poorly regulated, syllabic correspondence without sound value and syllabic correspondence-
[Link],theyaredistributedamongcorrespondences.
syllabic, syllabic-alphabetic, and alphabetic. In the second, there are basically writings
alphabetical, many of which are spelled correctly.

[Link],thequestionof
 96 I Teach or learn to write and read? Theoretical aspects

the relationship between writing and explicitly segmenting words. In a study

that addressed that problem (TOLCHINSKY, TEBEROSKY and MATA, 1994) we analyzed the con-
oralsegmentationbehaviorsandwrittenproductionbehaviorsinthatsameperiod
of time. We saw that the children had made remarkable progress in writing.
and in the acquisition of the specific characteristics of the system. From the point
from the perspective of oral segmentation, when starting the literacy process, the child
he tried various explicit manipulations of the statement that we asked him to perform
sometimes, not always phonemic segmentations, but fundamentally segments
syllabic sections. It was these syllabic segments that the children selected to
write and, in this way, syllabic segmentation became the preferred one. At
At the same time, the naming of the letters emerged based on the syllable of the name.
to which they were associated: 'the na' of Natalia, 'the ma' of María, 'the jo' of Joan. Thus
this denomination was provided by its writing and served as support for writing
other names, support that was also a form of [Link] the same time,
a more exhaustive segmentation is developed without written support, but in a medi-
it is smaller because it requires a higher level of abstraction. The designation
ofconsonantnames,whichcouldcoexistwiththesyllabicdesignation,wastam-
well a case of segmentation "supported" by writing: "the eme" of mama, "the jota"
Dejirefa. Although the names differ, in one case it refers to segments.
syllabic spelling and in the other of spelling, the process of interaction between writing and seg-
the diet is similar.

The second issue to resolve concerns the relationship between writing and
read. Although by the age of four or five children can recognize, produce note-
they assign social functions to them, they usually do not make use of those notations
during an interpretation stage. The children act as if they do not understand the
cognitive functions of the notation that they themselves have produced, although they have
captured what the social functions are. Possibly the use of one's own notation
it implies a metacognitive work of self-reference: what is written refers back to itself
lyrics. To tackle this work, you will need to take one more step, which consists of using your note-
action for another purpose, for example: to use what is written as a reference to carry out an activity.
different to write.

Often the school has aimed for a designation that encompasses both activities.
activities of reading and writing: the 'reading-writing', thinking that one was the inverse of
the other. This proposal represented an advance regarding a previous state that considers-
He recognized writing as distinct from reading. But in making this advancement, a sense of...
symmetry between the two activities, in which one was defined in terms of the other: one
one was reception activity, the other was production activity; one of decoding,
the other of coding; one of consumption, the other of creation. The idea that reading and
Writing reverse activities is still very widespread among educators.
It was the studies of literary criticism (in particular the studies of the genesis of the texts)
of authors) those who warned us of the different position that the same assumes
 The entry in the written I 97

subject when fulfilling different roles: that of reader or that of writer. In the area of
from psychological research it became clear that the creatures could develop from
unequal ways different skills, for example: that they were able to dictate
but not to write; to write, but not to read what they had written; to correct to
anotherchild,butnottocorrecthisowntexts(READ,1981;TEBEROSKY,1988).The
historicalstudies(CHARTIER,1992)hadalsoshownusthatitwasabout
different competencies, diversely distributed among cultural environments,
thattheywerenotdefinedinrelationtoeachother,thattheymightnotbesimultaneousandthattheydidnotpro-

theyhadthesameeffects:readingimpliesacertainescapefromoneself,writing-
tura forces isolation, concentration on oneself (CHARTIER and HÉBRARD,
997).

The conclusions of these studies are important from the standpoint of the
educational practice. The entry in writing is not a problem about what type of font
or with what type of unit (syllable, word, phrase) do we start teaching, because children
They have already started to learn. Are all the children? Obviously not, factors of
individual or cultural orders influence the moments in which they ...
they find, but most boys and girls follow similar paths to those here
we describe. So, what kind of activities should be carried out? Yes, like some
Researchers assume that there is a relationship between sound segmentation.
exhaustive and progress in reading and writing, and how segmentation is achieved
only with explicit training, we would recommend segmental exercises
[Link],aswehaveshowninvariousresearchstudies,thereare
an interaction between writing and segmenting, we are fostering writing activities
tura,whichininteractionwithphonologicalknowledge,leadsthechildtocarryoutapro-
notable progress in the explicit analysis of language. Therefore we continue to recommend
writing and reading activities from preschool, more than activities of seg-
feeding without the help of external [Link] do not intend to suggest that it is solely
from what is written you can access the sound components of language,
but by writing, as a consequence of writing, the child gains an orientation
towards language, a more comprehensive perception of segmental aspects and, without
doubt, a metalinguistic knowledge. All of this develops in interaction with the
written.

Regarding the activities of reading and writing, the fact that they involve positions
different from the text and different cognitive activities, does not require keeping them
disassociated: it is possible to eliminate the distance between writing and reading through practices of
rewriting, citation practices of texts in general, reading out loud, of memo-
that require the child to be a reader beforehand, whether because they have read due to
himself, either because he has heard readings from other people. It is also possible
Guide the child back to their own text, offering support for that function.
cognitive aspect that is most difficult for you.
98 I Teaching or learning to write and read? Theoretical aspects.

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CHARTIER, A.M. (1992): The world as representation. Barcelona: Gedisa
FERREIRO, E. and TEBEROSKY, A. (1979): Writing systems in child development.
Mexico:21stCentury
FERREIRO, E. (1986): "The representation of plurality, absence, and falsehood"
in FERREIRO, E. (Comp.): Literacy process. Literacy in process.
BuenosAires: LatinAmerica Publishing Center
HIEBERT, J. (1988): 'Atheory of developing competence with written mathematical'
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READ,CH.(1981):"Writingisnottheinverseofreadingforyoungchildren."
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TOLCHINSKYLADSMANN, L.;TEBEROSKY,A. and MATAS, J. (1994): "Phonological know-
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