When do young children begin their journey towards confident writing? Is it when they first trace a finger in baked bean juice or when they tell you a what an imaginary friend has just said? Is it when they can hold a pencil, make up a shopping list or pick up a toy cow and mutter about what it’s thinking? With support and enthusiasm from adults, all these experiences and many more are steps on the way to confident writing. It is not just marks on paper that matter, but the ideas and feelings that children want to write about.

In Making my own mark, Helen Bromley looks at how children can develop both their secretarial and authorial skills through play to become enthusiastic writers. She looks at the key experiences and resources that children require as they learn to write, finds opportunities for developing skills across the early years curriculum indoors and out and focuses on the crucial role of adults as role models, scribes and cheer-leaders. With lots of case studies, examples of children’s early writing and ideas for practitioners, Making my own mark offers a play framework for children’s earliest experiences as writers.