A longitudinal case study of a preschool-age child’s acquisition of writing

This article refers to a longitudinal case study, the main aim of which was to depict the development of the writing skills of a child from a high social class background, called Andreas, during the phase of his emergent/early literacy. The writings Andreas produced during literacy events that took place in his family environment from his birth until his entrance in primary school were assessed using the child’s intended purpose and text characteristics as the main axes, while a series of supplementary data was also examined. The results of the in-depth analysis of the written productions provided a satisfactory outline of the process for Andreas’ acquisition of the writing code as this developed over time, and they also brought to light the reasons that prompted him to write.