‘g’ and ‘e’ and in numerals such as ‘3’, ‘6’ and ‘9’; whilst connecting and direction
(including vertical and horizontal) are features of ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘4’ and ‘7’. They are also
significant features of all symbolic languages in respect of the direction of writing
and for handwriting in which letters are joined. Our evidence is that there are also
links between what Matthews (1999, 2003) describes as generational marksin young
drawings and the early writing of letters and numerals (see p. 89).
While Aaron was busy comparing the length of constructions he had made, build-
ing tall chimneys and pointing out exhaust pipes on cars, he was adding to his
understanding of ‘how writing goes’ at a deep level; for example, of how ‘A’ and ‘H’
are written. It is significant that many of the first letters he focused on share the
same ‘up and down’ movement and orientation as his ‘smokers’, in addition of
course to one being the first letter of his name. Whilst he was developing theories
about writing, my observation notes show how Aaron was also developing his
understanding of the relationship between reading, writing (letter symbols), writing
numerals, number patterns and counting. At the same time Aaron was also assign-
ing his own meaning to the marks he made and listening to the meanings that other
children and the teacher gave to constructions, text, numbers, symbols and pictures
they ‘read’ – truly multi-modal meanings (Kress, 1997).Understanding development
Knowledge about schemas and an appreciation of their significance in children’s devel-
opment can therefore help teachers to understand individual children’s writing devel-
opment and mathematical graphics. But such knowledge can only be gained through
observation of children who have opportunities to initiate their own play and learn-
ing, and an appreciation of children’s early (emergent) writing development. Athey
argues that when teachers closely observe children, this leads to ‘attempts to evaluate
(children’s) valid contributions to the negotiation of meaning, the teacher is able to
accumulate deep understanding of stage levels of cognition in children as well as other
aspects of development’ (Athey, 1990, p. 31). In our own settings, we found we were
able to appreciate and gradually understand the rich abundance of children’s visible
schemas and marks from our informal observations. In Chapter 6 we explore the early• Early development of mathematical meaning
Research into early literacy has established that there is a great deal of development
before formal instruction (McNaughton, 1995). Whereas formerly children were seen
as passive learners needing ‘pre-reading, writing and number’ activities, their active
involvement has been recognised. The research into early writing development during
the past 35 years builds on a long tradition of study of what children themselves actu-
ally do, that reaches back to Vygotsky and Luria: ‘writing must be something the child
needs ... writing must be “relevant to life” – in the same way that we require a relevant
arithmetic’, ‘and should become necessary for her in her play’ (Vygotsky, 1983, pp.
290–1). In researching the early development of writing in 1929, Luria observed that:
before a child has understood the sense and mechanism of writing, he has already
made many attempts to elaborate primitive methods; and these, for him, are the pre-62 Children’s Mathematics8657part 1b.qxd 04/07/2006 18:10 Page 62