Colouring is one of those wonderful, classic children’s activities that is adored by many. But there’s a lot more going on than just getting colour on paper- whilst colouring, children are ‘secretly’ (shh! Don’t tell them!) learning and developing a whole array of skills.
Perhaps the most talked about benefit in recent years has been how colouring can help with anxiety and stress. It is thought that by focusing on colouring you allow your brain (in particular the amygdala- which is in charge of sending distress signals to the hypothalamus) to rest, therefore reducing stress levels. This benefit might explain the increase in adult colouring book sales over the last few years.
In my experience, colouring in can be very therapeutic and relaxing for many children- in particular for some children with ADHD. It can be a fantastic tool to provide children with space and time to process events and calm themselves.
Other Benefits of Colouring Include:
- Encouraging Creativity: Whilst colouring, children learn about lines, shapes, colours and patterns. They can then replicate these in their own artwork. They are also practising useful pencil skills to enable them to start to draw their own pictures.
- Cultivates Focus and Attention to Detail. Children often want to make their colouring as perfect as they can. In order to do this they need to pay attention to the detail of the picture and focus on where the borders/lines are.
- Develops Fine Motor Skills and Hand strength. Using pencil crayons and other colouring implements is a fine motor skill activity- as it requires the development of the tiny muscles in the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are essential for learning to write, using knives and forks etc. Colouring can also build up stamina in hand strength as children grip onto the pencil for reasonably long periods of time. Children can also develop hand strength when experimenting with pressure of the crayon on paper I.e ‘How hard do I need to press to get a darker colour?’
- Broadens Knowledge of Colour Names- Often without even realising it, children expand their understanding of colour names when colouring. In particular verbally through asking for coloured crayons and describing their picture.
- Opportunity to Practise Social Skills- Colouring can be a brilliant activity for children to complete with friends. Sharing crayons and discussing which areas to colour help children practise important social skills such as taking turns and negotiating.
Colouring isnt just about ‘colouring in books’ anymore- we reviewed an amazing, novel product called Carddies a few weeks ago (see review here).
Carddies take the advantages of colouring to the next level with their themed, portable colouring sets in a box. Each box contains 12 figures with stands and a backdrop to colour using the 12 colouring pencils provided.
We enjoyed their unique take on colouring so much we decided to collaborate with Carddies, who kindly sponsored this post.
Carddies are available from the stockists listed in www.carddies.com, including Amazon UK, Winslow Resources, and Ocado.
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Categories: fine motor skills, Parenting, Parenting Advice, special educational needs, Uncategorized
The SEN Resources Blog 
This looks really interesting. Will definitely buy for children attending my daughters wedding. Looks ideal.
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Those would be perfect for a journey as double up as travel entertainment and toy at the destination. #blogstravaganza
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Absolutely, anything to make car journeys with children easier is fantastic in my book!
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my toddler loves colouring and drawing I knew it fosters creativity but didn’t know about all the other benefits you listed in your post. Carddies sound like such a unique colouring set #Blogstravaganza
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Thanks for reading. I’d highly recommend Carddies, like you say – v unique Colouring resource.
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Both of our girls love colouring, it’s great that it teaches them so much along the way! Thanks so much for sharing with #Blogstravaganza xx
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Such an interesting post. I’m glad my daughter is learning something besides how to color on our floor haha. Is there any benefit to coloring in pictures, like in a coloring book, vs drawing a picture oneself, i.e. on a blank piece of paper? I’m just very curious. Thanks! #blogstravaganza
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Thank you, so pleased you found it interesting. Colouring on hand-drawn pictures is great too, suppose the advantages of a colouring book are its convenience that it’s already drawn for you and the detail they include (and it’s good for people like me who can’t draw well!!) Carddies that I mention are really good as kids can also play with them afterwards, developing imaginative play as well as creativity.
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I love colouring in! My littlest one really enjoys it and it’s one of our special activities that we always do together. It’s also so easy to stick some paper & pens in your bag to pull out in “emergency” situations! #blogcrush
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Ah I do love a bit of colouring and my eldest daughter does too. It’s great it carries so many benefits. #Blogstravaganza
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Returning via #BlogCrush
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Peachy is turning 2 this weekend and for us colouring involves a blank piece of paper and wax crayons. But we still call that colouring and Peachy loves it. I only let her do it in her high chair after I tape paper to the tray. Otherwise crayon would end up on everything. Thanks for sharing with #Blogstravaganza.
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That’s definitely still colouring, lovely that she’s enjoying it at a young age too. Great tip with the taping the paper to her high chair! 👍😊
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hello! I just wanted to say how lovely it is to read these comments! Carddies started off as a toy to keep my girls entertained whilst on holiday and out and about (I continued to draw my “homemade” variety for them for many years, well after they could draw nicely themselves; for some reason they still enjoyed my little people and “commissioned” different characters to play with, making up names and their stories. It doesn’t cease to give me pleasure how in this complicated world of ours, simplest is often still best!
Thank you to lovely CheshireSENtutor for noticing the Carddies and helping spread the word!
Best wishes (and happy colouring!)
Raquel (and the Carddies Team)
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