![]() This sensory feedback is proprioceptive input that “wakes up” the muscles of the hands and can be calming input. For more strengthening, encourage your child to color more resistive surfaces such as construction paper, cardboard, or even sand paper.Ĭoloring with a crayon can be an opportunity to add heavy work through the hands. Using broken crayons requires more work and is a greater strengthening task for kids who need to work on their tripod grasp. When a child holds a crayon, they are working on the strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hand. Coloring is a resistive task that provides the small muscles in the hand to work the waxy crayon onto coloring sheets. Here is an easy way to create a DIY slant board.Ĭoloring is a fine motor strengthening tool that many Occupational Therapists recommend and use in treatment sessions. If a child needs to work on this area, you can show the student how to color on a slanted surface like a slanted table surface or elevated surface. This develops proximal stability at the shoulder girdle as well as core strength, allowing for postural stability in written work. This exercise can be extended further by working on a vertical surface such as an easel or by taping the page to a wall. To extend the activity, create more circles. You can help kids improve hand strength with this simple coloring exercise: Instruct a child how to color in small circles to work on the strength and endurance of the intrinsic muscles. To help a child develop hand strength, use coloring! They can build muscle endurance by coloring with the small muscles of their hands and allow for greater endurance when writing, too. Many times, kids will complain of hand fatigue while coloring. This skill will carry over to writing tasks, and makes coloring a great activity for kids who are switching hands in activities.īuilding on the fine motor skill areas, coloring can deepen a child’s endurance in completing writing tasks. Using the assisting, non-dominant hand as a stabilizer allows a child to build strength and dexterity in their dominant hand. When coloring, a child needs to hold the paper as they color. Using both hands together in a coordinated manner is a skill needed for handwriting, scissor use, and many functional tasks. Coloring with Crayons improves Bilateral Coordinationīilateral Coordination is a fine motor skill needed for so many tasks. All of these can extend fine motor skills with more practice in tool use as well as dexterity. To further develop tool use with children, offer a crayon pencil sharpener, a small bin or zippered pouch that needs opening or closing, and a variety of crayon sizes and shapes. They can use different colors by placing crayons back into the box with a coordinated manner. By developing coloring skills, kids have a natural opportunity to explore a writing utensil in a way that is fun and creative. One tool I love is our color by letter worksheet to support fine motor skills while coloring in a small space.Ĭoloring with crayons improves a child’s ability to manipulate tools such as pencils, scissors, utensils, grooming and hygiene tools, and other functional tools with ease. Whew! No wonder crayons get worn down to nubs with all of those areas that they are working on! Crayons develop the very skills needed for pencil grasp and carryover of that pencil grasp. Did you know those childhood memory sticks (aka Crayons) can be used in SO many skill areas?Ĭonsider fine and gross motor strength, tool use, sensory processing, pencil grasp, line awareness, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, endurance, self-confidence, creativity, task completion, and learning objectives like color identification, and color matching. Fine Motor Skills with CrayonsĬrayons are something that most homes have in a pencil box, in an old tin, or in a drawer somewhere. ![]() Crayons smell like childhood! This post on coloring skills is part of my 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series, where each day is a creative activity using OT treatment materials that are free or almost free. You know that smell, right? It’s kind of waxy and flaky (if that’s a smell…) and so distinctive! If you open a box of crayons that have the little marks of each crayon inside the cardboard box, it has an even stronger smell. ![]()
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