Coloring seems easy to most, however, it is not . It involves sustained gripping of a utensil while moving repeatedly. This involves maintaining grip strength,  awareness of hands and finger positioning, all while visually attending to a task on paper. Phew, doesn’t that’s sound tough? Not to mention having to focus on coloring within the lines… that’s a whole different story which should actually be regarded as a separate task (in other words we should not focus on attaining tripod grasp and coloring within the lines at the same time). Until the child has some control of grasping he/she should not be presented with the added demand of staying within the lines while grasping.  

So, when a child is having trouble coloring (which involves repeated strokes) have him do large separate uuuup then doooown vertical strokes instead (verbalizing “uuuup, and “Dowwwwwn” as they are doing it).  Have him/her use different colors to make it more visually engaging (so they are not just looking at a set of mono-colored lines on paper, but many colors (*See picture below)). Even if you have to assist by holding the top of the marker while the child holds onto the bottom of the utensil. As long as they are leading or actively participating, you’re off to a great start re: attaining fine motor control 🙂

Grippers help and stencils help, yes. However, our consciousness as adults regarding the level of demand that coloring requires and being able to respond accordingly depending on the specific child’s need is key in being able to meet the child where they are to best foster their ability to gain the skill . 

So the next time you decide to just hand a kid a coloring book, thinking, “that’s a simple pass time”. Think again. With all the physical, cognitive, and visual-motor components involved in this task, as building a complex sculpture is to adults, coloring a simple picture with a tripod grasp may be the same to our little ones 🙂

In sum: Teach coloring one step at a time:

1 . Focus on just grasping first

2. Then focusing on grasping while moving a utensil on paper (no need to color within the lines yet)

3. Then finally promoting coloring within the lines. At this rate, before you know it, they’ll be tracing ( but that’s a whole separate blog for an entirely different day, lol 🙂!!)