They say what this is. But for Santiago it should say car. The first properties of the text that are usually taken into account are quantitative ones. The problem is that when we talk about the properties of the text we only talk about qualitative properties. And qualitative properties means which letter at which place.
Children however begin by taking into account quantitative properties.
For example, they find themselves in a difficult situation when they see a picture with one object and many words below the object. Once children acquire a sensibility to quantitative and qualitative considerations they have to make connections between the two. She goes on to copy the first 4 letters. She says that she will use the same letters but fewer. Then she copies the first 3 letters of the word gallo.