The most common question which comes in the minds of the parents when their kids are about to start colouring is “Are colours safe for them?” The answer to this is “Yes!”
There is a beautiful saying “Colour is the language of the soul.” Colours also act as the therapy and can have great part in changing our mood for bad to very good and vice versa. Many rehabilitation centers paint their walls Green and Lavender to help their patients getting relaxed. Similarly, yellow colour is the sign of happiness and positive energy. Thus, the walls of the schools are painted yellow to energize the kids. Colours have very important role not only in the lives of the kids but also of the adults.
Colours also change the perception of what we think of something. Let’s take an inspired painting as an example. The colours change our perception of something being small or large. They also have a symbolic meaning which our mind recognizes immediately. We subconsciously associate the colour blue with a boy, pink with a girl and red is the colour of love.
The reason parents and teachers at the preschool ask the kids to start colouring at the young age is due to its benefits. The colouring on the pages or books enables the children to recognize and differentiate between colours. They get to know about the boundaries and that they are only allowed to colour within the borders. The importance of the borders is described.
The usage of the markers to colour the drawings is absolutely safe. Now a days, with the increased technology, parents and teachers are using non-toxic markers. They are even safe for the kids and toddlers who eat everything.
The benefit of using a markers to colour the pages or books is that they create very neat and crisp colours. Another benefit of the marker is that it colours very uniformly with consistence in each stroke. The artists use the markers when they want their creation to be sharp, crisp and clean.
Just because colours and colouring the pages and books is safe and healthy for the kids, new technologies are being introduced to build the interest in the kids in colouring and make their experience better. For example, live colouring book in Pakistan. It is an Augmented Reality colouring book and it works with the help of colour 3D app. Live colouring book in Pakistan enables the children to draw on the page and simultaneously visualize its 3D moving model on the smartphone camera. These affects not only fascinates the kids but also their parents and teachers. Thus, children take more interest in practicing this healthy activity of colouring books. The AR animation can also perform multiple actions like making sounds, moving back and forth. Kids can also play games with those objects after completing the colouring. This is encourage them to complete the colouring on daily basis to enjoy different games.
As we all know that colouring within the lines is very important for the kids and toddlers and enlighten very useful skill sets in them. It polishes the motoring skills and cognitive skills. The realization of having lines and boundaries is very important at this learning stage.
It is one of those things for which there is no right time to start. Parents just kind of realize whenever their kid is ready to take this step. Some kids love colouring a book or a page and start at the age of 9 to 10 months. While, some take longer and may even hit the mark of 1 year. It depends on the potential and interest of the child as to when he is willing to give it a try and use markers to colour the object. If the kid is not ready, it is good for the parents to wait a little and do not rush it. Eventually, every kid start doing it and it becomes his most favorite time pass.
When you decide of getting started and want your kid to grab a marker and attempt colouring, first you need to make sure that you bring the marker which the toddler can easily grasp. The paper or the book on which he will be colouring should be large as well, with big and wide drawings. The best way to get it started is to take a blank paper and tape it on the table so it may not move or slip. Grab a chair for your kid and start colouring the paper yourself first to show him what is needed to be done. Afterwards, you can hand over the marker and tell your kid to follow you.
Colouring will help the kids recognizing the difference between the colours. Studies show that a healthy child should be able to differentiate between basic colours by the age of 3 years and should be able to name a few. While your child is colouring, you should encourage them by saying “What a beautiful GREEN leave” or “A nice BLUE umbrella”. This will set the name of the colour in your child’s mind and eventually he will start remembering them.
In the nutshell, it is concluded that there is no specific time on which a kid should start colouring. He can start it whenever he is ready and you feel like he is able to do it. At first, the parents will have to give attention to the kid while he is colouring. But, after some time, it will become his own hobby and he will spend hours colouring different drawing. Children should start practice colouring at home so they do not have to face any difficulties in the preschool.
As we all know, colouring a book has very positive effects on kids. It develops certain skills in the kids which help building their strong foundation. Parents and teachers tend to hand over a drawing to the children along with the crayons asking them to colour within the lines when the child is of 3-5 years old. At this stage, very minimal skills are developed.
The reason why children are not able to colour within the lines is probably due to the lack of practice. Their motor skills and spatial skills are yet developing and the child is not precise enough to draw or colour within the lines.
This set of skills refers to little movements like the bending of the wrist and fingers. When the motoring skills are not fully developed, the child is only able to move large muscles with precision like dragging the crayons across the drawing using their arm muscles. However, when these skills are developed and the child holds grip on it, he/she is able to move with precision and draw more accurately.
“When children are really young, they scribble because they’re just using the movement of their arm and holding the crayon in their fist,” says Denise Bodman, Ph.D., a principal lecturer in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. “As their fine motor skills develop, they start using their fingers and wrist to move the crayon. That eventually leads to basic writing skills.”
This ability is the capacity of differentiating the size, measurement, boundaries and colours among different objects. When the children realize the boundaries on the drawing, they start to colour within the lines. When these skills are not fully developed, children are not able to consider the borders of the drawing because of which they cannot colour within the lines.
Spatial skills are very useful and are involved in everything. These skills help us from getting ourselves adjusted in a new environment to doing something physical.
Another reason why children are not able to draw within the lines is that in today’s world, they use crayons to colour. Crayons are waxy and it is very hard to draw a straight line or colour using them. Furthermore, crayons spread when they are rubbed with the palm or forearm of the child.
Some kids, who are more creative and do not want themselves to be limited within the lines, cannot colour within the borders. They are experimenting and learning like adding an orange colour with the yellow to see if it would look more attractive. This is age is very important for learning and the children of such ages tend to learn continuously with different experiments whether they are at the preschool or playing ground.
There could be a lot of reasons due to which the kids are not able to colour within the lines of the drawing. However, with some practice and focus, they develop different skill sets and learn how to colour and draw with precision.
