ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a consideration of theories of emergent literacy to underpin a discussion of young children as capable early writers. This leads to a focus on how parents and other family members can support their youngest children as they begin to recognise and represent writing in everyday contexts, before they begin formal schooling. Family literacy programmes and how they can be used to share theory and practice with parents to help further facilitate their children’s writing development are discussed. Central to the chapter is a case study of one child’s writing in her own home, showing how much learning and exploration about writing can occur as a child explores writing as a means of communication and power, the ways in which a child can develop her own theories of how writing works, and what being able to write can achieve. The chapter concludes with reflection on curriculum policy, in England, in relation to writing, and asks questions about the implications for policy on teaching writing in the early years of school and the roles parents play.
