Benefits of drawing for children

It is widely accepted fact drawing has many benefits for children but only in last decades some scientific studies have been done to provide hard facts and debunk few of the myths surrounding impact of drawing related activities on development of kids.

Let us try to make a short list of drawing benefits for kids:

1. Eye – hand coordination. Without proper coordination between hands and eyes we wouldn’t be able to do even most ordinary everyday tasks and practice can certainly help to make it better. Numerous health issues are related with poor eye – hand coordination and it works in both ways. If we improve coordination, we will have less problems in many areas of live and vice versa. Drawing can be simple and very efficient help.

2. Expression. Children, especially really young ones, don’t have properly developed vocabulary to express their wishes or feelings what often frustrates them. With a simple draw they can show their happiness, sadness, excitement… Kids are able to show a story with totally abstract figures, just with few shapes and lines, selection of colors etc. With practice drawing skills will improve and their vocabulary will follow.

3. Perception. Observing an object, character or situation is in close relationship with physical abilities of our sensory organs and drawing can serve as very good indicator of possible malfunctions of the eyes. Even if the eyes are working as they suppose to, we can spot a problem at interpretation in nervous system, in so called visual memory or in some other areas. If we know perception can be enhanced with simple tasks as drawing or coloring, we can use this to improve orientation, organization and critical thinking at kids relatively easily.

These are only few of many benefits of drawing for children and we’ll mention more when we’ll try to find the answer on another complex question: why is drawing good for adults?