In the 'transitional' stage of writing development, what is often characteristic of the child's writing?

In the transitional stage of writing development, children begin to refine their skills and demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between sounds and letters, even if their spelling is not yet fully accurate. This stage is characterized by the use of phonetic spelling, where children attempt to represent the sounds they hear in words, often leading to inventive but incorrect spellings. For example, a child might spell "cat" as "kat" or "dog" as "dawg," showcasing their understanding of the sound components of words but not yet having mastered conventional spelling rules.

At this stage, children are moving away from random scribbles and unstructured writing and are instead beginning to create more coherent attempts at words and sentences. Their writing reflects their growing understanding of phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle, as they try to connect sounds with letters in their writing. Thus, the focus on sound, even when represented incorrectly, is a hallmark of the transitional stage in writing development.