Writing development in preschool children has only recently begun to receive attention; however, Russian researchers dealt with the subject in the 1920s and 30s. Arguing that writing was a fundamental assist to cognitive growth as well as a tool for communication, Lev Vygotsky believed that the preschool child was ready to be taught writing. Alexander Luria's view of writing as a culturally mediated function of the individual served as an assumptive base in shaping his methodology for soliciting data from children. Results of his research suggested that the writing development process in young children is a general progression (albeit one with periods of plateau and regression) from a first undifferentiated phase to and through pictography to a final stage of ideography where the child understands and exploits the symbolic potential of language. According to Luria, such development is analogous to other cultural developments. His evidence that considerable learning potential remains unexploited in preschool children should lead us to reexamine some of our assumptions about when and how to begin writing instruction with children. His findings could also be useful for the work currently being done in metalinguistic awareness studies. (JL)