Coloring Books for Young Children

A coloring book allows young children to use and explore a writing utensil that is fun and creative. When a child’s maturity is appropriate, provide a crayon sharpener for more tool use and dexterity. Coloring improves bilateral coordination. Using both hands together in a coordinated manner is a skill needed for coloring, handwriting, and scissors usage. Safety scissors and adult supervision is both essential for very young children whose motor skills are in the early development stage.

Coloring is also a fine motor strengthening tool, and it is a resistive task that strengthens the small muscles in the hand. When a child holds a crayon, they are working on the strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hand. When writing or coloring, children coordinate their physical movements with information received from their visual system. It develops hand-eye coordination. Coloring helps with practicing coordination of the visual input with physical movements of the hands in very small spaces or large areas.

Visual perception is so important to many functional skills in hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness of the body’s position as it moves through three-dimensional space, line awareness, using margins on a page, and writing within a given space. Of course, coloring for children can be a fun activity, and it will give them a great sense of accomplishment when they add life to a design with beautiful colors.