Not wanting to color, scribble- when/should there be worry?

[HootyTooty]

When I wrote this, in the a.m. I used coloring and scribbling and while I appreciate the "my child hated coloring, but they color now" stories, I realize it is more than those things.:blush: So I am clarifying my question. Thanks to those who gave their experiences, though. :)

 

Is there an age where a parent should start worrying about the development of their child's fine motor skills?

Edited September 15, 2010 by HootyTooty

[simka2]

Well if my youngest is any gague I don't think so :D. At 4 he hated coloring...even thru preschool it was his big complaint. Now that he is 5 he is enjoy writing on white board, that's it! I'm sure someonevhas better advice.

[Garga]

My eldest hated to color/scribble until sometime when he was 5, I think.

 

I teach the 3, 4, and 5 year olds Sunday School at church and some loooove to color and some hate it.

 

But I don't know much about older kids. I'm not sure it's a big deal....why would they have to like to color?

Edited September 15, 2010 by Garga

[FriedClams]

My almost 8 year old son does NOT like to color. He'll doodle a little - but just not huge into drawing or coloring. Asking him to color as schoolwork would have killed him.

 

Now - Legos!? Kinex?! Done!! Cardboard and duct tape... Watch out!! He can create like a wiz. He read early and reads often. Way ahead in most subjects. Writes fairly neat for a 7 year-old-boy.

 

So in my experience - coloring (and I never asked my kids to stay inside the lines, ever) - is not a great predictor of future potential. :)

 

But - IF YOUR MOMMY GUT SAYS SOMETHING IS WRONG - and coloring is just one of many things you can objectively see are a little off - then it's always worth having it looked into.

[Parrothead]

Coloring was never a big thing for dd either. Every once in a blue moon she will color in a page in a coloring book. She still has coloring book I got her when she was 2.

[DarcyB]

Then my 10 year old might be in real trouble. He never has liked to color or scribble or doodle.

[abbeyej]

For a very young child, I would simply begin trying to institute a twice daily fine motor skills practice time. I wouldn't tell the child that! But for *myself* I would come up with a list of simple, fun fine motor building activities and try to engage the child in one of those at least twice a day (at least ten minutes or so, if possible).

 

I don't think there's a big problem with a child not choosing to color or scribble per se. *But* there's a problem if the child is not developing and/or actively avoiding developing fine motor skills.

 

My list would start with things like (and you don't say exactly how old, so these are certainly just examples):

-building with Legos

-sorting mixed beans into muffin tins

-threading pony beads on to drinking straws

-Light Bright toy

-play dough (free play, modeling, and also digging small items like marbles or plastic dinos out of play dough)

-small cups, bowls, creamers with a little water and a drop or two of food coloring in various ones. Also use tiny droppers and pour (carefully -- practice not spilling) back and forth, and use the dropper to move colors from one container to another...

-use trainer chopsticks (the kind that are like giant tongs or tweezers) to move craft pompoms from one bowl to another

-sand play

-finger painting

-sewing cards

-collages made by gluing beans or tiny grains to cardboard

-finger-knitting

-weaving construction paper

-making mud pies and decorating with tiny sticks and rocks

-cornstarch and water play

-Tricky Fingers game

-string Cheerios on yarn

-sidewalk chalk

 

etc, etc. Whatever you can think of. But don't just hand the activity to the kiddo, sit down beside him or her and get involved. It may be that after a few minutes of working side-by-side, you can wander off and leave him or her to it for a bit. But you'll need to impart your own enthusiasm for the activity.

 

Also be aware of gross motor skills and strength. Make sure kiddo has time to run and climb and swing and throw and play each day. Weak core muscles can make developing fine motor skills much more difficult, so if it's remotely possible that that's an issue, you may want to emphasize that type of play and activity as well.

 

I wouldn't worry too specifically about coloring/scribbling/drawing/writing before age 4 or 5. But I *would* worry about developing fine motor skills. Even after 4 or 5, I would only spend a small portion of the time on those specific skills, and more on developing overall strength and dexterity. By age 7, I would be spending some pretty serious, focused, daily time on writing (with correct pencil grip and correct [efficient] formation of letters), and I would at least expect careful, accurate work on coloring things like maps for geography, etc. Not every child needs to be an artist, but they all need good fine motor skills and an ability to do detailed, careful work.

[Dobela]

For a very young child, I would simply begin trying to institute a twice daily fine motor skills practice time. I wouldn't tell the child that! But for *myself* I would come up with a list of simple, fun fine motor building activities and try to engage the child in one of those at least twice a day (at least ten minutes or so, if possible).

 

I don't think there's a big problem with a child not choosing to color or scribble per se. *But* there's a problem if the child is not developing and/or actively avoiding developing fine motor skills.

 

My list would start with things like (and you don't say exactly how old, so these are certainly just examples):

-building with Legos

-sorting mixed beans into muffin tins

-threading pony beads on to drinking straws

-Light Bright toy

-play dough (free play, modeling, and also digging small items like marbles or plastic dinos out of play dough)

-small cups, bowls, creamers with a little water and a drop or two of food coloring in various ones. Also use tiny droppers and pour (carefully -- practice not spilling) back and forth, and use the dropper to move colors from one container to another...

-use trainer chopsticks (the kind that are like giant tongs or tweezers) to move craft pompoms from one bowl to another

-sand play

-finger painting

-sewing cards

-collages made by gluing beans or tiny grains to cardboard

-finger-knitting

-weaving construction paper

-making mud pies and decorating with tiny sticks and rocks

-cornstarch and water play

-Tricky Fingers game

-string Cheerios on yarn

-sidewalk chalk

 

etc, etc. Whatever you can think of. But don't just hand the activity to the kiddo, sit down beside him or her and get involved. It may be that after a few minutes of working side-by-side, you can wander off and leave him or her to it for a bit. But you'll need to impart your own enthusiasm for the activity.

 

Also be aware of gross motor skills and strength. Make sure kiddo has time to run and climb and swing and throw and play each day. Weak core muscles can make developing fine motor skills much more difficult, so if it's remotely possible that that's an issue, you may want to emphasize that type of play and activity as well.

 

I wouldn't worry too specifically about coloring/scribbling/drawing/writing before age 4 or 5. But I *would* worry about developing fine motor skills. Even after 4 or 5, I would only spend a small portion of the time on those specific skills, and more on developing overall strength and dexterity. By age 7, I would be spending some pretty serious, focused, daily time on writing (with correct pencil grip and correct [efficient] formation of letters), and I would at least expect careful, accurate work on coloring things like maps for geography, etc. Not every child needs to be an artist, but they all need good fine motor skills and an ability to do detailed, careful work.

:iagree:

[Guest Classical Mind]

My child scribbled and scribble-colored but did not want to write in his pre-K. He went to public Kinder last year and after much negative feedback from his teacher and doing the eye test before receiving speech therapy, we found he had amblyopia, strabismus, astigmatism, far-sightedness, and with further testing fine and gross motor delays.

 

He now has occupational therapy (for handwriting and motor delays), vision therapy, and glasses. His educational assessor said that after finding and treating these problems it takes a year for the full benefits to kick in. It's been less than a year and he is reading; his handwriting is good; and his confidence is improving.

 

All these conditions were quite subtle, and while I sometimes thought he might need an assessment, nothing seemed severe. Yet on examination, it turned out that his brain and eyes were not working together properly and there was a danger that if his brain decided that either eye was not working it would stop receiving information from that eye and turn off the vision (functional blindness).

 

However, even his optometrist did not catch the conjunction of the amblyopia and strabismus. This was confirmed by an orthoptist.

 

I feel fortunate that we finally found out about these conditions and were able to find good treatment for our son. And it started with the vision testing by an optometrist (by the way, his vision was tested by both his pediatrician and his pre-school; they put his inability to say which direction the E's were facing down to "behavior" not an inability to see properly).

 

Best wishes.

[Susan in KY]

Then my 10 year old might be in real trouble. He never has liked to color or scribble or doodle.

:iagree: Same here. DS HATES it, and he is an amazing artist today. DD dislikes it and has fine penmanship.

 

To the OP: I think coloring is something teachers put out there to fill time and then found an reason to justify it. Mine (now in upper elementary) refused to do it and I couldn't blame them. It seemed then (and seems now) mindless to have to color someone else's picture. They suffered no ill effects from their coloring boycott! :001_smile:

[Nakia]

My almost 5 year old daughter hates to color. She like scribbling, but detests coloring. The other she screamed at me during school time, "If you don't let me do math instead of color, I'm going to break your throat!" Not one of her finer moments, but that just shows how much she dislikes coloring. :D

[Heatherwith4]

If they don't want to, then I wouldn't worry about it.

If they "can't" then that could be a problem, depending on the age.

[TravelingChris]

My youngest particularly did not like it- why? Because she is a perfectionist to a very high degree. She realized she couldn't color things to look like what they really look like nor could she draw them. She outgrew that complete level of perfectionism and has enjoyed coloring and drawing once she got quite a bit older (at least 7 or 8).

[gingersmom]

My son never liked to color but he also had fine motor issues. Which would explain his aversion to coloring.

 

If you have any concerns I would take him for an OT evaluation.

[AndyJoy]

My youngest particularly did not like it- why? Because she is a perfectionist to a very high degree. She realized she couldn't color things to look like what they really look like nor could she draw them. She outgrew that complete level of perfectionism and has enjoyed coloring and drawing once she got quite a bit older (at least 7 or 8).

 

Hahaha that was SO me! I just came across a pile of my favorite childhood coloring books and discovered that I had only colored 1 or 2 pictures in each. I was momentarily confused, because these were the coloring books that I loved and had strong memories of using. Then I remembered that I loved the pictures too much to "ruin" them with imperfect coloring:lol:.

 

In kindergarten we were forced to color little letter/word booklets every day. The were ditto copies, and I hated the look of the purple lines and the fact that I couldn't color perfectly in the lines. Thus, I meticulously outlined every line in black crayon after filling it in.

 

In 3rd grade we had a fairly long-term project that involved coloring in pictures of different birds and filling in information about them underneath the pictures. I did the writing, but procrastinated on the coloring because I was so stressed about it looking perfect. Then I didn't turn it in at all. This was the only assignment I ever failed to turn in K-college! My dealying was for naught, because the teacher was shocked I hadn't done it and called my mom and they made me finish it all in one night--major hand cramping!:tongue_smilie:

[sunriseiz]

My almost 5 year old daughter hates to color. She like scribbling, but detests coloring. The other she screamed at me during school time, "If you don't let me do math instead of color, I'm going to break your throat!" Not one of her finer moments, but that just shows how much she dislikes coloring. :D

 

:lol: LOL, this is similar to our DS1 (4.5). He. Will. Not. Color. However, it turns out that he loves dot-to-dots, tracing anything, and mazes, of all things. He also likes to write his name. Go figure!

[Nakia]

:lol: LOL, this is similar to our DS1 (4.5). He. Will. Not. Color. However, it turns out that he loves dot-to-dots, tracing anything, and mazes, of all things. He also likes to write his name. Go figure!

 

Aren't they funny? I had to hold in the laughter long enough to send her to time out for screaming. Cora still has a hard time with tracing and mazes. :/

[Heather in AL]

My kids are now 15 and 13 1/2 and neither colored. They would do what was given to them in ps, but that was it. The cute coloring books we bought them went untouched. In fact, my ds would pretty much just scribble over the entire page. Now, at one point (4th grade?), he *did* draw a picture of an historic building from a photo that was part of an assignment of drawing to scale, and he did an incredible job.

 

Both kids wanted to build, rather than color/draw. Legos, Play Doh, etc. Build and create. No coloring/drawing here, but like a pp, they both LOVED mazes and those dot-to-dot pictures.

 

My dc are also very musical, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

 

Their lack of coloring/drawing concerned me (and made me sad, as I had 8 years of art lessons, but no music!!), but they never showed any other traits that concerned me.

 

If the lack of coloring is all that is bothering you, I would let it go, as others have mentioned, but if you are noticing other things, then I would probably have an eval. done.

[Sherry in OH]

Does not want to color or is unable to hold the crayon?

 

My son's pediatrician referred us to OT after son's 4 yr. well check. After evaluation and OT, it turns out son is double-jointed. Also turns out that his father and grandfather had the same issues. They outgrew the problem. Nice of MIL to share that info after several months of OT. :confused:

[Cinder]

I think coloring is something teachers put out there to fill time and then found an reason to justify it. Mine (now in upper elementary) refused to do it and I couldn't blame them. It seemed then (and seems now) mindless to have to color someone else's picture. They suffered no ill effects from their coloring boycott! :001_smile:

 

:iagree:

 

Both ds's despised coloring. Absolutely refused. There were no physical issues; they just thought coloring was Boooooring!

 

Cinder

[AuntieM]

My older 3 are very close in age. When they were K-ish, I'd sit them down with crayons and paper to draw while I read aloud.

 

DS1 & DD would get busy with the crayons. DS2 wouldn't touch the crayons. All he wanted to do was count the holes from where the paper was spiral-bound.

 

Today, ds2 is my math whiz.

 

And, when the urge strikes him, he draws. In fact, he now does that pretty well.

 

So don't worry. Just give him other fine-motor skills to work on. You've gotten some great advice on that.

[Belacqua]

My older 3 are very close in age. When they were K-ish, I'd sit them down with crayons and paper to draw while I read aloud.

 

DS1 & DD would get busy with the crayons. DS2 wouldn't touch the crayons. All he wanted to do was count the holes from where the paper was spiral-bound.

 

Today, ds2 is my math whiz.

 

And, when the urge strikes him, he draws. In fact, he now does that pretty well.

 

So don't worry. Just give him other fine-motor skills to work on. You've gotten some great advice on that.

 

This made me laugh, because I have one just like that. Coloring and drawing never appealed to him; I dreaded pediatrician visits that included the "draw a person" test, because I was convinced the doctor would think I locked the kid in the house and never let him see what actual people look like.

 

He's 13 now, still can't draw worth a darn, but is doing just fine. His handwriting is passable (even excellent when I force him to slow down), and he'd still rather count things than color them.

[HootyTooty]

After talking to his ped, we are going to go speak to an OT, since we are seeing that it isn't a case of won't it is a case of physically can't.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Now that my boys are 6 and 7.5, they are finally starting to show a small amount of interest in coloring. Mostly, they've taken to drawing. Up until very recently, they weren't interested in anything that involved a writing implement.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My boys hated coloring and scribbling. They wanted to draw and draw they did. They are both accomplished at rendering. One of their favorite toys, however, was a magna doodle. They loved that they could experiment and instantly erase their mistakes, perfectionists that they are.

[kalanamak]

Is there an age where a parent should worry if their child does not want to color or scribble? And if there is who do you contact for an evaluation?

 

My son was a good printer before he liked coloring. He wanted to be big enough to be neat! So, it was 6.5 for us. Never scribbled.