🖍️ Early scribbles 📝 Planning before writing

prewriting

4.6

Early marks or scribbles children make before they can write letters

noun
/ˈpriˌraɪtɪŋ/

: garabateo

Children often engage in prewriting activities by scribbling on paper before they can form letters.

Examples

Teachers encourage prewriting to help children develop fine motor skills and creativity.
Before learning to write words, kids express their thoughts through prewriting pictures and symbols.
Do a prewriting exercise.

Academic text (2009)
Morris et al. (2003) suggested that children should be encouraged to do "prewriting." To do so, children need to have materials, such as pencils, paper, crayons, and clipboards, available and accessible during play (Owocki, 1999).

Academic text (2009)

Synonyms

scribbling

vsprewriting

7 3.5

Messy, quick writing or drawing that is hard to read and has little meaning

describes early child marks before learning letters rather than careless adult drawings

How Developed

writing

206 1.1

to letter

6 7.7

prewriting

4.6

marking

3 1.9

scribble

5 3.5

Surface Forms

prewriting singular

prewritings plural

Morphology

prewriting = writing (semi-transparent) = pre + write + ing

Although 'pre-' clearly means 'before', this sense refers specifically to children's early mark-making before conventional writing, which is a specialized educational use.

Etymology

Prewriting is built from pre- meaning 'before' and writing meaning 'to write'. It refers to the early marks and scribbles children make before they can form real letters, so thinking of it as 'before writing' helps you remember its meaning.