Dr Deborah Pino-Pasternak, an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education and Community at the University of Canberra, told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings adequate writing instruction and practice in schools is an essential cornerstone of writing development.

"I think writing has become the poor cousin within the literacy spectrum," she said.

"Literacy involves reading and writing and what we know in terms of the development of those skills is that better readers are also better writers."

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