When your child first picks up a crayon or paintbrush she is beginning to portray her own ideas, initially as pictures. However, these ideas soon become communicated through another method - that of marks on paper. And once the distinction between drawing and marks on paper has been made, your child has become a writer. As a parent, this can be where the panic sets in. "What can I do to encourage these writing skills?" and "How should I develop them?" are questions generally asked.

The first thing to remember is that writing, like speech, is a form of communication, whether it be a legal document, a story or a quick shopping list. Another important thing to bear in mind is that when we write, we jot down ideas and concepts and are not initially concerned with accuracy and neatness. Your child needs to go through this process when communicating ideas too and it is really important that you don't expect neatness and accuracy of spelling very early on. As your child emerges as a writer she will go through most of the following stages, although not necessarily in this order.

• Using a range of writing materials to make marks with. These marks may be lines or circles and are perceived as text rather than pictures.
• Reading these marks to you e.g. "Mummy I've written a story" and knowing that the marks stand for words.
• Using letter shapes when writing. Children generally include the letters in their name at first and any other familiar words they can read.
• As she begins to pick up some phonological awareness, relevant sounds will begin to appear in her writing e.g. if she is writing sand, she may put a 's' at the beginning because she can hear the 's', but then follow it with a random selection of letters.
• Including simple words that she recognises from her books e.g. the, and.
• Leaving spaces between the words.
• Including the correct spellings as she is taught specific spelling patterns.
• Punctuating her writing with full stops and capital letters.

If that seems a pretty daunting list, don't worry! These skills are all taught during the first 2-3 years of primary school.

So what can you do to help at home?

• Act as a good role model - if your child sees you writing she will want to write as well! Remember - only use capital letters when necessary.
• Introduce her to the letters of the alphabet concentrating on lower case letters. This is important otherwise when she writes she will use capitals and this will both confuse her when she is reading and make it difficult for her when she starts joining her handwriting.
• Read aloud what you have written.
• Explain why you are writing things down e.g. as a reminder in case you forget to do something, a note for the milkman, a shopping list.
• Encourage her to keep a diary or scrapbook whilst on holiday.
• Encourage the art of letter writing, whether it is to grandparents or thank you cards for birthday presents.
• Provide lots of opportunities to write by setting up role play at home. For instance when playing a game like doctors and nurses, leave some paper lying around and suggest she writes prescriptions, or set up a travel agency with telephones where she can take messages.
• Ask her to write out the shopping list while you look in the cupboards to see what you need to buy at the shops.
• If your child has problems holding a pencil, buy her a pencil grip.

Most importantly in the early stages, resist the temptation to correct spellings. Your child will be really proud of her efforts and if she thinks it is not spelt correctly, it may put her off writing again. This is especially true of very able children who are sometimes reluctant to write because they know they cannot spell accurately. Tell her you don't expect her to be able to write like a grown up and that you think her writing is great.

The time to introduce correct spellings to your child is when she has become very confident with her writing. (See How to teach your child to spell for more advice).

Remember the writing that she does for you after a hard day at school should be fun. A tired child will not be so concerned with accuracy and nor should you. Focus on the content of the writing rather than perfect spellings.

Once your child has grasped the idea that writing communicates meaning she will want to write at every opportunity. And the more opportunities she gets to practise these skills the better.

Sarah St John is a fully qualified primary school teacher with seven years teaching experience. She has worked as a Literacy Co-ordinator implementing the National Literacy Strategy.