“A child once conditioned to colouring books will have difficulties in enjoying the freedom of creating. The dependency, which the colouring book creates, is devastating. It has been revealed by experimentation and research that more than half of all children, once exposed to colouring books, lose their creativeness and their independence of expression and become rigid and dependent.” – Dr. Viktor Lowenfeld
There has always been a debate whether or not colouring books are accepted as part of a child's creativity...
Seeing the Child’s Side…
When the child draws his own dog, his feelings of love, friendship, dislike, or fear give him an opportunity to express his relationship to the dog. He is proud of this dog and will rush to tell all the things it brings to mind or will have the deep satisfaction of feeling these things, even if he is too shy to share them.
Filling in others’ outlines is a lazy way, but he enjoys it. As he colors he realizes that he could never draw a dog as well as this. Next time, in school or at home, when he is asked to draw a dog he says, “ I can’t draw”.
Please don't think that if your child has colouring books that their doomed in their creative development.. just limit the amount of time they do colouring and encourage drawing through different mediums. Such as painting, chalk drawing, crayons, textas, pencils...Provide your child with a notebook that they can use to draw at their free will. As childcare professionals we find that colouring books aren't the best solutions to develop a child's creative side...
Colouring books….
Are drawn by adults
Are not the work of children
Promote reliance on the efforts of others
Promote the idea in the child
Establish stereotypic solutions which are difficult to overcome
Inhibit creativity
Present concepts that are foreign to the child
Regiment the child into one type represent
Result in loss of sensitivity
Negate the idea of individual expression
Allow no opportunity to express emotions
Offer no opportunity to express anxieties
Leave no room for individual differences
Promote lazy habits
Foster lazy habits
Foster regressive tendencies
Promote the “ I can’t draw” attitude.
Hope this helps.
- L.A
