Coloring is such an important part of the early years of learning and growing up. There are many benefits of coloring. Coloring develops hand strength, visual perceptual skills, and precision skills to grasp.
It’s the first time many of us express creativity and produce something we are proud of. It boosts confidence, develops understanding of cause and effect, and increases attention spans.
Coloring is also an important stage of child development, too. It helps with pre-writing skills in a child's life. But sometimes you see coloring can be hard for kids. Many times, you see kids that refuse to color. Other times you see kids who prefer markers over crayons. There is a reason why some kids hate coloring & I will share why they do not like it. And how we can help as the adult.
WE HEAR THIS A LOT:
It hurts the my hands to color
Coloring is HARD!
Coloring makes my hand so tired
I want to color with markers NOT crayons
Coloring in the lines is hard
It’s hard to finish a coloring page. I'm done!
All of these reasons why kids hate to color, and many times, it comes back to a need for developing hand strength and underlying skills.
So how do we help kids want to color in our world today. In order to color in a shape, hand strength is needed. In order to color within the lines, visual motor skills are needed. In order to color a whole shape or figure, distal mobility is needed.
Activities to develop these skills include fine motor play, beading, tweezer use, play-dough, clay, lacing cards, working on a vertical surface can develop these skills. Line awareness such as drawing straight lines, squares, triangles, X & diagonal lines can help your child.
So many things that play an important role in how we teach coloring skills to kids! Keep working with your kids daily. Know in the long run, it is worth it for your child!
