Advantages of colouring pages for children by @BoltCallum

Colouring pages are often seen as a ‘passing the time’ activity for children – something to keep them quiet and busy. Although there are many other benefits of using them to structure early artistic talent and discovery.

Colouring using many motor skills such as holding of the pencils or scribbling in a small area. This all improves wrist, fingers and hand muscles. Colouring pages improves hand strength by requiring them to manipulate a pencil on a paper. Colouring pencils are often softer than regular HB pencils and different colours require different pressure (black and yellow for example). Learning to apply the correct pressure also can aid in pencil grip when handwriting.

Holding and sharpening pencils as well as recognising and choosing colours from a pot helps with hand eye coordination.Requiring children to colour on a colouring sheet requires them to colour in a defined area this forces them to carefully control the pencil or crayons.

Setting a task of a colouring sheet teaches children patience by focusing on an outcome. The defined outcome of a finished sheet sets children up to succeed. Children have to focus to complete a colouring sheet and it has been shown that children who spend time colouring are more likely to have longer concentration and focus skills. It has been shown that children can show emotions through colouring that they have difficulties discussing vocally.

Knowledge of colour, line, shape as well as other principles of art is taught early on through colouring sheets. It gives children a basis to start exploring when a white page can be ever so scary. As they build up experience from colouring they will begin to build up a preference of colour for future are pieces. Colouring allows children to create a imaginary world in their head, which without drawing would be impossible. Through colouring children can begin express themselves and their creative choices which can be honed later in their education.

Early colouring sheets of well known objects and scenes such as trees, rivers, houses and the sky give children their first exposure to the colour wheel. From this they can experiment with colour combinations and what happens with different colours in different situations.

Children will often talk while colouring whether it be to a friend or an adult. This gives them the opportunity to learn new words and sentences. They use descriptive words to talk about their choices, the scene on the page, the colours and materials they are using, as well as their mistakes and success. There is also some evidence to suggest that colouring can begin to develop critical thinking skills.

This article was originally published on Callum’s blog at: https://primaryschoolartideas.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/advantages-of-colouring-pages-for-children/