The child´s conception of writing : a qualitative study of how pre-school children speaks about writing

Abstract English title: The child´s conception of writing – a qualitative study of how pre-school children speaks about writing. Author: Elin Truks, spring term of 2017 Supervisor: Anna Malmbjer The aim of this essay is to describe how children speak about writing. I´ll also compare how children speak about their writing today compared to Dahlgren and Olssons studie from 1985. To achieve the aim have two questions been formulated: What is writing for pre-school children? Which similarities and differences is there today compared to Dahlgren and Olssons study from 1985? The study is based on interviews with eight pre-school children to get answers for the aim of this study. The questions for the interview has been proposed by Gösta Dahlgren, Karin Gustafsson, Elisabeth Mellgren och Lars-Erik Olsson (2013) which they have used for research purposes. The results showed that children in pre-school are aware about what writing is and can express it in a creative and detailed way. They have many conceptions of writing, what it is and for what purpose writing is used. The results also showed that pre-school children are at different levels in their writing development. Results showed that there are similarities and differences today compared to Dahlgren and Olssons study from 1985. The similarities showed that pre-school children describe reading and writing as a mental act (metacognition) and that they see possibilities of it. They mean that reading and writing can be used as a means of communication and they describe the reading and writing of the text based on the structure of it. They also express an external requirement as a motive of reading and writing. The differences showed that children in Dahlgren and Olssons study express reading as external observable behaviors and as a process expressed with their bodies. The pre-school children in my study speak about writing with digital tools. Keywords: pre-school pupils, writing, metacognition, conceptions of writing