Children's perceptions of the graphic features they use to differentiate their writing from drawing

This project examined preschool children's understanding of the graphic features they use in their emergent writing, differentiating it from a drawing of the same referent. The graphic features they could express through speech and communication were examined, as well as the graphic features they used in their emergent writing. The frequency of graphic feature identification was examined, as well as significant differences and the congruency between graphic feature use and graphic feature identification. The most frequently used graphic features used were linearity, unidirectionality, and small size of units. The most frequently identified graphic feature was conventional letters. Overall, children use significantly more graphic features than they were able to identify. Significant relationships comparing the 2-year-old group and 4-year-old group's usage and identification were also found