The simple acts of drawing and coloring are literally childs’ play, however, they both play an important role in a child’s physical, emotional and cognitive development. Like no other activity, drawing and coloring allows young children to express themselves and their emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence. Drawing and coloring are also excellent pre-cursors to developing writing skills because the toddler is honing his or her fine motor skills which are essential when learning to write.
Parents and caregivers can promote drawing and coloring as a way to improve physical, social, emotional and cognitive development – and to have a lot of fun along the way too. Here’s a few pointers:
1.Provide kids with nontoxic materials, blank sheets of white paper and coloring pages.
2. Model drawing. Show children that you like to draw and color too - make designs but do not show your children what they should draw.
3.Encourage all drawing and coloring activity and efforts by talking about the beautiful colors, the lines and shapes the child has made.
4.Rather than ask, “What have you drawn?,” say “Tell me about your drawing”. Asking “What is it?” suggests to the child that s/he has failed to depict what they intended.
5. Talk about concepts like thin, thick, wide, narrow, dark, light, edge, shape, contour, etc.
6. Display their art on the kitchen fridge, in their room and in places where visitors to your home will see them. Point them out to visitors, friends and relatives – the praise fthey will receive for the work will boost a child’s self esteeem and confidence.
7.Give kids the freedom to choose the subjects of their drawings and the types of coloring sheets they would like. For example little boys may enjoy coloring images of cars, trucks or a favourite character such as Pokemon - and at sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find printable coloring. Little girls on the other hand prefer images from fairy tales such as Princess pictures - choose whatever pleases your child to encourage their enthusiasm for the activity and their interest in it.
8. Always supervise younger children while they draw and color – crayons pose a choking hazard.