by Victoria Montgomery

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: December 23, 2010

What are the benefits of coloring books? Is Barney supposed to be purple? Is Tigger supposed to have stripes? Well, if you are a child, appropriate color is in the eye of the beholder. Children don't see things the same way we do. A picture of Tigger in a coloring book might end up being pink and blue or even have green spots. Dinosaurs might turn out to be every color but green or gray. Children pretty much know what colors things should be but they are innately creative. They love to explore color and coloring books can help them do that very thing.

Coloring books can spur the imagination along with silliness. As a child I spent endless hours coloring magnificent pictures in coloring books. I loved it! I was so proud of what I'd done and would show them to everyone. My mother always encouraged me to do another one so I kept coloring. To this day I still love to color.

Today, in the field of early childhood education, teachers are encouraged not to use coloring books. They say the reason is because they are unimaginative. They apparently don't encourage creativity. They say children should be encouraged to explore and create their own images, not use some predetermined picture. They say it stifles their imagination. I beg to differ.

I was a preschool teacher for many years and have never seen any sense with that reasoning. Children are imaginative by nature. If they have been allowed from a young age to explore their creativity, then coloring books will not stifle that trait. I have always encouraged my students to draw their own pictures and even refused, for the most part, to draw for them but I have no problem with coloring books. Children need to see pictures and drawings of things in order to have a frame of reference for how things look. I think coloring books help give them this understanding and yet they also allow creative expression within set boundaries.

Some people will tell you that coloring books have become too commercial and therefore aren't appropriate for that reason. So what? Children will still be creative in the way in which they color them. Besides which, I am not sure that coloring books are more commercial than they were in the past, just different. Sesame Street has been around for a long time and it seems very commercial to me.

Another benefit to coloring books is that they help children develop small motor control. Small motor control is important since this skill needs to be developed for writing, something your child will do a lot of in school in the years to come. At two years old they can't seem to color inside the lines but at four years old the skill has developed. Coloring books give good benefits.

Developing creativity in your child can happen in many different ways, coloring books included. Limiting your child's exploration to one venue, such as drawing, limits their creative expression and their joy. Coloring books can be great fun and isn't that what childhood is all about?

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