& Sulzby, 1986), little information exists regarding effective writing instruction in the preschool setting. Conducting a systematic review of experimental research is a useful approach for identifying instructional strategies in writing that hold promise for improving young children's emergent literacy skills (Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, & Harris, 2012). Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of experimental studies investigating preschool writing instruction along with a meta-analysis component. Due to the interrelated nature of emergent literacy skills, experimental research in the preschool setting often includes multifaceted interventions (i.e., interventions that include instruction in multiple literacy domains), making it challenging to discern the effects of specific domains. Specifically, few experimental studies have been conducted with interventions focused solely on preschool writing instruction (Bernhard, Winsler, Bleiker, Ginieniewicz, & Madigan, 2008; DeBaryshe & Gorecki, 2007). In this study, we used Head Start's definition of early writing as the familiarity with writing implements, conventions, and emerging skills to communicate attitudes and ideas through written representations, symbols, and letters (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Emergent literacy theory suggests children's early writing involves experimenting with writing and modifying understandings about print through meaningful PRESCHOOL WRITING INSTRUCTION 3 interactions with the social environment and text (Clay, 1991). Emergent writing has been observed across several dimensions (e.g., writing form, directionality, ways of assigning meaning, and message content; Rowe & Wilson, 2009) and children as young as two years of age have been observed to use early writing to explore and record ideas (Rowe & Neizel, 2010). A growing body of research suggests emergent writing skills appear to develop at different rates, along a developmental continuum, and without a set sequence of activities (Levin et al., 2005; Puranik & Lonigan, 2011; Tolchinksy, 2003). As children move through using their current forms (e.g., scribbles, letter strings, words) of emergent writing, they begin to notice print and to recognize and write familiar words. Graves (1983) describes children's natural desire to write. Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. This is no accident. Before they went to school they marked up walls, pavements, newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils…anything that makes a mark. The child's marks say, "I am." (p. 3) Calkins (1983, 1986) states that as children move through the developmental stages of writing, they experience the powerful discovery that print carries meaning. Tolchinsky (2014) emphasizes that children learn to write by consistently engaging in the act of writing and experimenting with print. Although a large body of research supports the importance of children engaging in meaningful early writing experiences, a recent study conducted by ...
