The Developmental Benefits of Coloring + FREE Coloring Pages for Children (Printable)
/We love coloring—and so do our children! This simple yet fun activity is low-cost, calming and can unlock creativity while supporting physical, emotional and cognitive development. If you haven’t added coloring as part of your child’s activity routine, we highly recommend it.
In this guide we will share some of the most impactful benefits of coloring for your child, and provide several free printable coloring pages from our own Yo Re Mi kids yoga coloring book.
What are the benefits of coloring for children?
Here are 6 amazing child development benefits kids receive from coloring, and ideas on how to support their development further.
1. Coloring helps develop fine motor skills
Between the grip of a coloring utensil (color pencils, crayons, etc.) and the drawing precision a child begins to develop over time, coloring is a great way to help children build fine motor skills and hand strength.
In developing these muscles, you set your child up for improved writing skills and endurance. And in a world where digital devices demand more thumb usage than our other digits, hand muscle and fine motor skill development at an early age is more important than ever.
2. Coloring activities help children improve focus
You can help your kids greatly improve focus and concentration—while making it fun—with coloring! While coloring is definitely entertaining, it also requires a significant amount of concentration.
The great thing about coloring is it calls for focus without the stress that studying, tests and homework can bring. And as your little one grows, they will learn the more they focus on their coloring page (or any project), the more connected they’ll feel to their finished product—and proud of themselves too!
Mindfulness Tip: as your child lengthens the duration of their coloring sessions, try incorporating breathing exercises to help them find further relaxation during the activity. This can create a link between calm and concentration, and may help them improve studying and test-taking skills in the future.
3. Coloring a blank canvas builds creativity
What we love most about coloring is there is no set finished product to aim for! Every coloring ending will be different regardless of age or skill level—and that’s what makes it special.
Coloring pages are a canvas for expressing ideas, unlocking creativity and trying the unconventional. You can mimic your reality: with a brown dog and yellow sun or use your imagination and explore new possibilities: like a yellow dog and purple sun!
Child Development Tip: Add coloring to this list of kids activities that support individuality, and ways to encourage children to be innovative.
4. Coloring helps develop color recognition
Coloring and painting are great ways for children to improve color recognition, and if they’re feeling extra innovative: mixing colors too! We find this easier with paint, but it can also be done with crayons and color pencils.
Expert Tip: Encourage your child to name the colors they grab before using it. You can even discuss the colors of the rainbow, followed by a guided Rainbow Chakra Relaxation post-coloring session to continue the theme.
5. Coloring words helps build reading skills
Another great thing about coloring is the pages can be about any theme: (ie. science, your favorite show, shapes, or spelled out words).
Since we teach kids yoga, we love using yoga coloring pages for children that provide illustrations depicting specific yoga poses and the spellings of those poses. Downward facing dog, for instance, is “Dog Pose” so we illustrated a person practicing dog pose and a dog doing the same!
Providing words on coloring pages (or individual letters of the alphabet for younger artists) develops reading and spelling skills without feeling like homework! Check out this colored-in version of the Dog Pose sample coloring page from our own book below (colored by one of our own kiddos!)
6. Coloring can foster social-emotional learning
Coloring offers a number of opportunities to build social-emotional learning (SEL) in children. Whether it’s drawing our thoughts and feelings or using the illustrations as an entry to storytelling, the options are endless.
Exploring the colors of the rainbow is also a great way to explore our feelings and how those emotions correlate with color. Our children’s sing-along “I am a Rainbow” (watch below) is packed with affirmations and social-emotional language that aids in building emotional regulation.
How to get FREE coloring pages for kids (Printable)
If you want to download free coloring pages for children, try our sample kids yoga coloring pages from our full Kids Yoga Coloring Pages book. The full version’s 20-page packet has original yoga illustrations, with fun words and illustrations depicting each pose.
FREE Coloring Pages Printable
You can get free yoga coloring pages here to sample the packet and start coloring today!
Not only is coloring a great sibling bonding activity (or relaxing classroom activity), it is also massively beneficial for child development in many ways. We hope that you enjoy using the Yo Re Mi coloring pages!
Save this article for later and don’t forget to download the Yo Re Mi app for children’s mindfulness and musical yoga videos.
