4 year old refuses to color
Our 4 year old is in junior kindergarten and we've received multiple letters from his teacher regarding his refusal to color in class. He also refuses at home when we try to encourage him to color. We've tried to get coloring books featuring his favorite cartoon characters, but it seems the more we try the stronger he resists.
Any suggestions?
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We had a somewhat similar situation with my son when he started pre-K this past August. He would refuse to do any activities that involved cutting with scissors. There were a couple of reasons for this:
I'd never actually let him hold scissors prior to that, so he didn't have any experience with them.
He's left-handed, he's the only kid in the class who's left-handed, and they only had right-handed scissors. Once we got him a pair of the correctly oriented scissors, it helped a lot.
He wasn't very good at it (obviously) so he wasn't exactly inclined to do it more.
I guess I would assess a couple of other things first: Does he know how to hold a pen/pencil/crayon correctly? Could that be the issue? If he hasn't had much experience holding a writing utensil correctly, the newness of it might be off-putting to him. Has he ever liked to color? I only ask because my son doesn't especially LOVE to color. He'll draw stuff, but he isn't really into coloring unless he has to.
While the ability to hold and manipulate a writing utensil appropriately is an important fine motor skill, I've always sort of viewed coloring as practice of that fine motor skill. Maybe I'm wrong...
After a couple of incidents where his refusal to even attempt classwork lead to behavior problems, we sat down with him and made it abundantly clear that it was NOT acceptable for him to simply refuse to even try. If he needed help, he needed to ask for help, but he HAD to at least try. We were understanding and we made it clear that we understood that cutting was difficult for him, but that he needed to attempt the activity. His teacher is also good about sending work home with him that he doesn't complete in class (which never happens now). He was pretty chastened. We have also worked extremely closely with his teacher so that he knows there is no disconnect between school and home. Whatever he does at school, we pretty much always know about it--good or bad.
However, I would say: IF his refusal to do the activity or assignment in class isn't leading to bigger behavior problems and IF his writing/fine motor skills are progressing normally otherwise, I wouldn't push the coloring at home if he doesn't seem interested. I would stress the importance of him attempting the activity/assignment because it could simply be a case of him needing more practice to get better at it. And I would work very closely with his teacher to try to figure out exactly what the hang-up is and what seems to work and what doesn't. You might luck out and he might just tell you what the problem is, but we were never that lucky and had to piece it together ourselves.
Why force a child to color? Is he destined to take over the family coloring business?
The best is to just let him be. My wife is 30 now and has never colored. Didn't stop her from getting a phd in math.
Have you tried just giving him blank paper and see if he prefers coloring his own pictures?
Scribbling is actually an important pre-writing skill, but there are a lot of different things that could be making this activity less desirable for him.
It might be that he is intimidated by the idea of having to color inside lines. In which case, offering him blank paper will make all the difference.
He may also have some strength/grip issues. You can try other types of writing materials that do not require pressing as hard. colored chalks and oil pastel crayons are a little messier, but don't require quite as much force for application. If you find he needs better strength. Play dough is the answer! the more he plays with and kneads dough, the stronger his little hands will get - and it is fun.
It may be an issue where he is asserting independence. He is pushing boundaries and buttons because he is about four and it is his job to do so. If he is feeling forced, he may have an issue with being told he absolutely must sit and color right now. At this age, a really great way to give him a sense of control and independence, without losing your ability to guide him where he needs to go is to offer choice. "Would you like to color Pooh Bear today, or make your own picture?" This way, he knows it is coloring time, but he still has a sense of control over how he uses that coloring time. He should also be allowed to decide when he done. Even four year olds deserve a little respect and control over their own activities to some degree.
It is also possible your son has a sensory problem with the feel of paper or the sound of writing. If he likes to write/draw under other circumstances, this is not an issue. If he does not ever want to write at all, you might eventually look into sensory issues. Give it a little time first, try some of the other suggestions and see if he just grows out of it in six months or so. If not, look into possible sensory challenges. There are actually a lot of ways to help with sensory issues as well, but he may need professional intervention for a little while if this is the case.
My son (now 8) also did not want to color! I think it takes a certain kind of personality to be able to sit there and perform all these small repetitive motions over a long period of time. My son was an active kid who was pragmatic in his own way: he would much rather draw pictures from scratch himself, whether it is with crayons or paint. He just didn't have the patience and/or didn't see much benefit to filling in something already laid out. A coloring sheet picture of a dog already looks like a dog, and coloring it didn't change anything important about the dog (in his point of view).
Also, if your child is high-achieving or a perfectionist at all, he may be frustrated at not being able to color and shade the drawing to what he had originally envisioned due to the limitations inherent in crayons and 4-year-old hands.
My son's kindergarten teacher was concerned at first, because she wanted to gauge his fine motor skills, his ability to follow directions, and have him participate with the others. I asked her to please evaluate those skills in other realms as well (drawing, writing letters, etc.), because he just hated coloring. And luckily for all involved, she did.
He is now a very bright, enthusiastic learner, and is a pretty impressive artist to boot (his preferred medium is pencil drawing).
I say all this to say that lots of truly creative kids find coloring too limiting, so maybe if you can convince your son how to make coloring fun (maybe challenge him to use every color in his crayon box), or just wait for this phase that emphasizes coloring to end. In the long run, it has absolutely no bearing on his future academic performance, and he should be able to demonstrate his love of learning and creating in other ways.
My son has the same issue. He is fine with using a pen or paint and likes school work, but refuses to use crayons. He screams and cries. After a lot of research and questioning, I found out that some people apparently have sensory issues where the feeling of a wax crayon or the feeling of a crayon against a piece of paper is intolerable for them. Also, I learned, some people have allergies to the soy, dye, or other chemicals in crayons that can make it physically uncomfortable to use them.
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