For a child, coloring is a common activity. But did you know that coloring is a fun activity that offers many benefits? Experts, such as María Montessori , have proven that coloring or painting is one of the main axes of fine motor skills that children must develop (pick up the pencil with the appropriate precision, choose the right colors and paint or color the area indicated must develop as early as possible so that in the future the practice of writing comes naturally).

We are going to show you the advantages of teaching your child to color and how to do it.

Development of psychomotricity, as we have already said, coloring exercises fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, allowing the development of creativity in children.

Promotes the ability to concentrate in children. Concentration is the ability to keep attention focused on an activity or mental process that is essential for learning.

Reduces stress levels in children by helping them escape from their problems. Drawing is a natural form of relaxation.

Coloring stimulates creativity and artistic expression using originality and imagination.

This activity increases a person’s self-esteem, appreciation or consideration for themselves and is very important for the development and well-being of our children.

It helps to manage emotions, to control them, thereby improving the emotional state of the child.

When children color, they develop their motor skills, while coloring they try not to get out of outlines, improving their dexterity and, of course, their fine motor skills.

The first strokes of the child’s brush or pencil when he begins to learn to color are a little abrupt, which very often leads him to go beyond the limits of the figure. But as the child acquires the vision of the space which must be colored, he begins to respect them. This is a bit more complex and time consuming process as it requires fine motor control. Over time, he learns to calibrate his hand strength to control the coloring strokes of smaller and smaller figures.

Methods for teaching coloring

Teaching children to color is not difficult because it is an activity that they love and are hungry to learn. However, there are things you can put in place to make coloring a truly rewarding activity for your child.

Choose well the materials that are going to be used, fundamentally understanding the pencils or pastels with which your child will start coloring. Pastels or crayons should have a soft lead that fills the design evenly. This saves the child from going over several times to fill in color, as this can frustrate them. In the materials we will also have a wide variety of colors so that the child can have a choice and thus be motivated to use several of them. Also remember to provide a large number of blank sheets of paper, you have to be patient, the beginnings can be a bit complicated.

Teach the proper way to hold the pencil or paintbrush if you have chosen paint. At first, children don’t know how to catch it well. Although at first we have to let them catch it as they please, the normal thing is that little by little we teach them to catch it correctly.

Process for coloring a drawing: the child can start by learning to color the outline by trying to follow the edges of the figure without leaving it, for this opt for drawings with large outlines. The child can then color the inside evenly with small strokes to avoid overflowing.

This step will have to be repeated as many times as necessary, it is necessary that the child is constant and to create a kind of routine.

Coloring techniques for children

There are several coloring techniques with the different strokes, to promote fine motor skills in children. Here are a few.

Smooth and precise straight line : the child must color by making horizontal or vertical movements in a straight line.

Circular lines : the child colors in a circular way by pressing on the line.

Fine lines : while the child colors the drawing, he must delimit the space. That is why the child should not leave the lines corresponding to the space of each figure, what he develops is preparation.

Finally, it is important that the child learns to color, because it is a preliminary step to learning to write , for which the child must have developed his fine motor skills and his digital prehension.

Mandalas as a coloring method

Coloring mandalas is a very effective method for children to start coloring more accurately because they contain a large number of lines that they must color by combining many colors.

Mandalas are symmetrical designs that help children not only practice their fine motor skills, but also balance their emotions, producing calm and serenity within them.

To color mandalas, the child must be over 5 years old because until this age there is no precise development of fine motor skills and it is around this age that children begin the process of writing. After learning to color, children gain the ability to write their first vowels and continuous words.