Transitions and Tensions: Interrelationships between the Drawing, Talking, and Dictating of Young Children

Within the context of a common school activity, this study examined the meanings young children express in talk, pictures, and written text, focusing on how children draw upon all three in one composing event. Data collection took place an average of twice per week over a five-month period in a public school kindergarten. Collected data included the children's drawn and dictated products, audiotaped recordings of the children's talk while drawing and of their dictations, and observational notes. The study's findings illustrate children's exploration of imagined worlds through drawing and talk, and, at the same time, the potential problems children face in transferring those worlds to text.