ABSTRACT
One of the earliest skills a child must learn, when starting to learn to read, is to recognize that the different letters vary in shape and that the shape of each letter is invariable. This can be achieved in a variety of ways—alphabet books, playing with wooden letters, matching individual letters, tracing with the forefinger letters made of glue and sand—much of it incidental and unstressed as a part of learning to read. There are many ways through which the child can gain an appreciation of the nature of print. The primary significance of the practice of writing a word or a sentence under a child’s drawing is that it emphasizes the symbolic nature of writing and the relevance of order. The fact that the differentiation and identification of letter shapes and sounds are referred to in isolation from words, by no means implies that they should be taught in isolation.
