Developmental Sequences in Name Writing

When we found in the course of making comprehensive mental examinations of children between the ages of three and six that many of the children seemed eager to write their names on their drawings, we made the name writing exercise a routine part of all examinations of these children. This preliminary, but informal experiment gave convincing evidence that the child's ability to write his name improved steadily from age three to age six without any direct instruction in writing, and that exceptional maturity or immaturity in name writing, apart from direct instruction, was a significant developmental sign. In order to verify this tentative hypothesis name writing data were collected from children in these age ranges more uniformly and systematically.