When Do Kids Start Writing Letters? Signs of Readiness and How to Prepare

If you have a child somewhere between three and five, there is probably a moment when you wonder whether it is time to start writing letters, or whether it is still too early. Hearing that other children can already write their names makes the question louder. In this post I look at what school standards actually expect and at some real data on when children learn to write, using Japanese hiragana as an example. Then I share my own view on readiness signs and preparation.

What school standards expect

Most education systems place real handwriting instruction around the first year of school, not before it.

In England, children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception, the school year in which most turn five. According to the Department for Education’s guidance for early years providers, a child at the expected level for writing will “write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed”, spell words by identifying their sounds, and write simple phrases and sentences others can read. The same page says that what matters is not perfection but whether children can communicate meaning in writing others can read.

In the United States, the Common Core kindergarten language standards say children should “print many upper- and lowercase letters” during kindergarten.

In Japan, the national kindergarten curriculum guidelines (2017) do not ask kindergartens to teach writing at all. They ask teachers to help children enjoy expressing their thoughts using letters in everyday life and to develop an interest in letters. Reading and writing hiragana and katakana are formally taught in the first and second grades of elementary school, according to the elementary curriculum guidelines, along with correct posture and pencil grip.

So, in every one of these systems, a child who can’t write letters before school is not behind.

An example from Japan: hiragana by age

Hiragana is the first script Japanese children learn, with 46 basic characters plus voiced variants. Japan has unusually good data on when children pick it up. The National Institute for Japanese Language ran a large survey in 1967, and researchers Shimamura and Mikami repeated it with the same method in 1988. Shimamura summarised both in a paper titled “文字習得のふしぎ” (roughly, “The puzzles of learning letters”).

In the survey from November and December 1988, children were tested on 71 hiragana characters. On average, three-year-old classes could write 4.5 of them, four-year-old classes 20.9, and five-year-old classes 44.6. For reading, the averages were 18.6, 49.7 and 65.9. Reading comes first, and writing follows behind.

Shimamura also noted that in the 21 years between 1967 and 1988, both reading and writing arrived almost a year earlier. Even 1988 is a long time ago now, so children today may be faster still, although I could not find a newer survey using the same method.

The point I find most useful is about the spread. According to the same paper, the scores did not form the usual bell curve around the average. Reading in particular split into children who could read almost everything and children who could read very little. In other words, the average tells you very little about the one child in front of you. One five-year-old writes forty characters and another writes almost none, and both are normal.

I would expect the same to be true of the alphabet or any other script, even if the numbers differ.

Signs that a child may be ready

Children do reach a point where they want to write. These are the signs I think are worth watching for.

Interest in letters. They spot the letters of their own name on a sign or in a book. They ask what a word says. In the Japanese data, reading ran ahead of writing, and I think an interest in reading is often the first step.

Tracing lines and shapes. Straight lines, curves, spirals, zigzags. Can they follow a dotted line roughly? Can they copy simple shapes such as a circle or a cross? Letters are built from these strokes, so they are the foundation.

Sitting still for a few minutes. Even a few minutes at a table, drawing or colouring, happily.

Pretend writing. They fill a page with squiggles and announce that they wrote a letter to grandma. This shows they have understood that writing carries a message, which is exactly what the Japanese kindergarten guidelines want children to discover.

When several of these are in place, I think it is a good time to start. A child’s behaviour is a better guide than a birthday.

How to prepare before formal writing

Line games. Mazes, dot-to-dots, tracing paths. Drawing lines that aren’t letters is more relaxed than writing letters, and it builds the same hand movements.

Grip and posture. Schools teach this too, but a habit formed early takes effort to undo. Short, chunky crayons or pencils help, and quietly showing a good grip is usually enough.

Start with their name. There is no need to go in alphabetical order. The most meaningful letters for a child are the ones in their own name, and writing it is a real thrill.

Get the shapes right from the start. The UK guidance above stresses helping children avoid embedding incorrect letter formation. I think this holds for any script. When tracing, check together where each letter starts and which way the stroke goes, and the rest gets easier.

What about starting too early?

Some parents worry about pushing too soon. I am against making a reluctant child fill pages every day. On the other hand, I don’t see a reason to stop a child who wants to write. What matters more than age is keeping it easy to stop. Keep sessions to a few minutes. Praise the attempt more than the result. Take a break when they lose interest.

What BrainDojo Kids can do

BrainDojo Kids is an iPhone and iPad app for ages three to six. Its writing courses move through four steps, Trace, Copy, Write and Test, with the guide fading step by step until the child writes from memory. Handwriting is recognised on the device.

Following the order in this post, I would start with First Lines for line practice, or My Name for writing their own name. My Name is free all the way through. First Alphabet is available in every app language, and First Hiragana appears when the app is set to Japanese or English. On the free plan, the first few stages of each course are open. There are also printable tracing sheets for practice with a real pencil, and the first hiragana sheet is free. Because the app is used with a finger, I think it works best alongside paper for learning pencil grip.

In the parent settings there is a daily time limit, on by default at 10 minutes, after which the app shows a closing screen for the day. There are no ads and no account to create.

Getting Started with BrainDojo Kids covers the first session, and Practical Tips for Using BrainDojo Kids Every Day has ideas for keeping it going.