How coloring pages help in child development

Coloring pictures is the next best thing that children love to do after play. Many parents consider coloring just as an activity to keep their children engaged for some time. It might be a surprise for most of the people to know that coloring plays a very important role in children’s physical and mental development. Let us see some benefits of coloring

Fine motor skills development:

Fine motor skills refer to our ability to use small muscles of our fingers, toes, wrists etc. to do activities like holding a pencil, eating from a bowl using a spoon and so on. Kids develop their fine motor skills as they start coloring the pictures. Kids need to hold the crayons, color pencils and other coloring tools to color the pictures; this act strengthens the little muscles of their fingers, wrists and hands. This, in, turn helps the kids to have a strong grip over small objects, to develop good handwriting and so on

Improve hand eye coordination:

The act of coloring pages, sharpening crayons and color pencils, picking colors and using it in the right spot etc. improves hand eye coordination in younger children.

Improve concentration and helps them to focus:

Coloring pages calls for focus and concentration as the kids need to color within boundaries. While coloring pictures, children take extreme care not to shade the area beyond the boundary of the images. Through coloring, young children learn to focus their attention on a particular target and this, in, turn increases their concentration levels.

Develops patience and perseverance:

Coloring comes under those activities which require extreme patience. Coloring each and every detail of an image with patience teaches the children to pursue work with patience.

Develops color recognition skills:

The children get to know about various colors and its shades as they start coloring. They also learn to make new colors by mixing the colors they already have at hand. Coloring encourages children to observe the shades of colors with which the nature around them had been created.

Inculcates a sense of self-esteem and self-confidence:

When a child completes coloring an image and sees that it is good he/she gets a sense of accomplishment and pride. This would gradually build up self-esteem and self-confidence in children.

Coloring time is the time to express their imagination:

Children’s imagination takes wings when they sit down to draw and color. This is the reason why we spot multi-colored trees, birds etc. in their coloring books. Next time when you see your kid giving different color or multiple colors to an image please don’t try to correct or scold him/her. It means that the kid is imagining the object in a different color combination. Just appreciate the kid for his coloring skill.

Coloring time is relaxing time:

Now this may sound ridiculous because we think that the kids have no stress. Matters of little or no importance to us can stress up the children. Providing them with coloring books can help them relax. Kids have the freedom to use whatever color they want to use to color an image. This relaxes their minds and they are calmed.

Helps kids to bond with parents and peers:

Kids make friends as they spend time with their peers while coloring. Parents get to spend quality time with their kids when they sit beside them and guide them as they color. This strengthens the parents - kids bond.

So after play, the next best thing to boost your child’s physical and mental well-being is to let them color and draw. You can get them coloring books from your nearby store or even download printable coloring pages from the internet and create them a coloring book. Give them a bunch of crayons and images to color and you find them grow well, physically and mentally!

Krzysztof writes articles about children and improving their creativity. He owns a website named "Top Coloring Pages" offering 2000+ printable coloring pages for children and adults for free.