Why Coloring, Drawing and Handwriting Matter

Learning at home · 4 min read

Coloring looks like nothing more than a quiet afternoon activity. For a child aged 3 to 6 it is also practice: the hand learns to hold a pencil, the eyes learn to follow a line, and the child learns to finish what they started.

Fine motor skills matter more than they seem

A study published in Child Development (2012) followed children at the start of kindergarten. Those who were better at copying simple shapes and drawings did better in kindergarten, both at the start and over the year. Copying a shape asks a lot more than it seems: looking, planning and controlling the hand, all at once.

Handwriting helps children learn letters

Researchers at Indiana University asked 5-year-olds who could not yet read to learn letters in three ways: writing them by hand, typing them, or tracing over a model. Then they looked at the children's brain activity. Only after handwriting did the area that adults use for reading become active (Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 2012).

That does not mean tracing is useless. It means that once a child has traced a letter, it is worth letting them try to write it on their own, even if it comes out wobbly.

Paper brings more conversation

A study published in Pediatrics (2019) compared parents and toddlers reading the same story from a printed book and from a tablet. With the paper book, they talked to each other more and worked together better. The tablet pulled attention towards the screen rather than the person.

What you can do at home

• Chunky crayons first, regular pencils later. Small hands tire quickly, and five good minutes are worth more than twenty minutes of struggle.
• Let them go outside the lines. Control comes with time. Praise the effort, not a perfect picture.
• After tracing, free writing. A letter traced three times, then one written alone on an empty line.
• Talk about what they are coloring. "What color is your cat?" is already a conversation.

We built the Coloring Studio for days when the tablet is within reach anyway. For the hand and the pencil, though, nothing replaces a printed sheet.

Sources

• Fine motor skills and executive function both contribute to kindergarten achievement, Cameron et al., Child Development, 2012
• The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children, James and Engelhardt, Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 2012
• Differences in Parent-Toddler Interactions With Electronic Versus Print Books, Munzer et al., Pediatrics, 2019