Investigating the transition from the personal signs of drawing to the social signs of writing

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we describe patterns in and associations between the ways in which young (ages 3–7) children living in northern rural and Indigenous communities in two Canadian provinces communicated ideas as they drew, talked, and wrote in response to researcher prompts. Prompting the children to draw and talk about a personal experience afforded them the opportunity to explore word meanings and relationships using their personal sign systems prior to communicating the experience using a new sign system, writing. We conclude with recommendations for teachers of ways to scaffold students’ transition between the two sign systems in their classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Children’s drawings
• Drawing-writing connection
• Canada
• Vygotsky

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge this research was conducted in the territories of: Treaty 3, Ojibwe First Nations; Treaty 8, Woodland Cree First Nation; and Treaty 9, Ojibway Nation. We are grateful to the communities for welcoming us to work and learn with them. We are thankful to the participating children and their teachers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada under grant number 895-2012-1007.