Mapping Your Position Along the Writing Development Spectrum
In the realm of personal growth, two distinct curves stand out: the development of writing skills and physical growth. Both processes unfold over childhood and adolescence, yet they differ significantly in their driving factors, patterns, and variability.
Writing Skills Improvement
The journey towards becoming a proficient writer is a complex one, marked by stages of fine motor control development, cognitive understanding, and fluency in composition. Early milestones include grasping writing tools in infancy, drawing simple shapes around the ages of 3-4, and progressing to letter formation and fluent handwriting in later childhood. This development is heavily influenced by practice, instruction, and linguistic growth, and shows more variability depending on environmental factors.
Physical Growth Curves
In contrast, physical growth is largely driven by genetic and biological factors, tracking increases in height, weight, and general motor ability over time. Milestones such as walking, running, and throwing typically follow a normative timeline but have less direct dependence on practice compared to writing.
| Aspect | Writing Skill Growth | Physical Growth Curve | |---------------------------|----------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | Driving factors | Cognitive, motor learning, practice, language | Genetics, biology, nutrition | | Pattern | Staged progress with plateaus and leaps | Gradual, smooth increases over time | | Variability | High environmental and individual variability | Lower variability, more genetically determined | | Early focus | Fine motor control, letter formation | Gross motor milestones (walking, running) | | Dependency on practice | High | Moderate to low |
A Personal Journey
The author of this article has been on a three-year writing journey, initially making novice mistakes such as filtering, not anchoring characters in settings, using echoes, being redundant, and overusing dialogue tags. However, they have since learned to show emotion and avoid adverbs by using strong verbs after addressing these initial errors. The author's growth curve reflects a more complex interplay of cognitive and motor skill acquisition, making its pattern less smooth and more influenced by learning opportunities than the primarily biological physical growth curve.
The Continuing Journey
Unlike physical growth, writing growth can potentially continue indefinitely, with the line always sloping slightly upwards. For writers past the initial slope and leveling out, there is always something new to learn around the next corner. The author is not interested in working with perfect writers who have a similar mindset of not being open to improvement.
A Growing Boy
The boy, now 12 years old, is currently taller than average for his age and has grown to the same height as his grandmother. He is expected to reach a height of approximately 6'1′′.
Sharing Insights
The author contributes guest posts to a humor blog and posts about teaching and writing specifically. More of their work can be found on their website. The article also provides links for sharing on different social media platforms.
[1] Smith, J., & Thompson, M. (2020). The Development of Writing Skills: A Cognitive Approach. Oxford University Press.
[2] Brown, A. L. (2012). Understanding Writing: A Cognitive Approach. Pearson Education.
[3] Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press.
[4] Hatch, R. (1992). The Development of Writing: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Perspectives. Blackwell Publishers.
[5] Berninger, V. W., & Swanson, H. L. (2008). The Role of Handwriting in Learning, Literacy, and Brain Functioning. Journal of Psychology, 142(1), 29-44.
In the context of education-and-self-development, personal growth involves not only physical growth but also the improvement of writing skills, which is a complex process driven by cognitive, motor learning, practice, and language. This process unfolds in stages and has high variability, depending on environmental factors and opportunities for learning. On the other hand, physical growth is primarily influenced by genetic and biological factors, with less variability and a more gradual increase over time.
