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 are some suggestions:
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 emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence.
1. Provide children with nontoxic drawing materials, blank sheets of 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 efforts by talking about the beautiful colors, the lines and shapes the child has made.
4. Rather than ask ”What is it?,” say “Tell me all about your lovely drawing”. Asking “What is it?” suggests to the child that s/he may have 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 their artwork out to visitors – the praise they will receive will make them feel proud of their work and will encourage them to draw and color again.
7.Let children choose the subject of their drawings and the types of coloring sheets they would like to color. For example little girls may enjoy coloring images of princesses and fairies and at sites like Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find the best free fairy coloring
Little boys on the other hand tend to prefer images of cars, trucks and machinery – however, favorite characters such as those from Disney movies are also hits with little boys.
8. Crayons pose a choking hazard – so always supervise younger children while they draw and color.
