ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the writing development of our youngest members of society: children from birth to 2 years of age. It discusses ways in which early childhood educators can support early writing with children from birth to age 2 in a context of responsive, respectful and reciprocal relationships. There are many pedagogical documentation strategies that birth–2 educators can use to capture young children's rich experiences in early writing and drawing. It is important when documenting young children's writing experiences that the approaches to documentation are holistic, consider the child's strengths and provide insights into the child's interests and learning processes. Work samples can include anything created by the child to represent early writing, such as drawings, paintings and collages. Work samples collected over time can show how the writing process develops over time. It is also helpful to add descriptive notes, jottings or a brief anecdotal record to the work samples in order to provide some additional context.
