The age-related development of emergent writing skills was examined in 49 studies including 1647 children 12 to 60 months of age. The extant literature was used to develop a multi-level sequence of emergent writing ranging from mark making to conventional writing which was used to code findings in the primary studies. Results showed that there were clearly discernible age-related changes in young children's development of pre-emergent and conventional writing abilities. Results also showed that there were similar age-related changes under adult prompted and unprompted conditions. Implications for practice are described. (author abstract)