Expressing feelings through pictures ...
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Colouring plays a large role in the development of children.
Here they express that which they cannot put into words. At the same time, colouring fosters creativity and stimulates the imagination. Spontaneously and without hesitation, children reach for crayons or pencils and draw whatever it is that comes to mind. Inhibitions that something might not come out “pretty” enough are still un-known to them. |
Pablo Picasso supposedly once quite aptly said, “As a child, everyone is an artist.
The difficulty is staying one as an adult.”
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Colouring is also a language of its own that reveals much of what is going on in children’s minds. Prof. Dr. Martin Schuster, Psychologist on the Educational Science faculty of the University of Cologne, has conducted several research projects on this topic and has published the book "Kinderzeichnungen - Wie sie entstehen, was sie bedeuten"
("Children’s drawings - how they originate, what they mean"). |
Schuster found out that even within a child’s drawing, their culture exists. "Children in Mexico for example do not draw the sun with straight lines radiating outward, but surround it instead with coronas of circles, something which is shaped through their culture,” the psychologist revealed. Nevertheless despite language barriers, children can make themselves understood through their pictures. Adults just have to look closely.
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The most important aspect about colouring however is that it is a sensible and meaningful free-time activity that is fun to do. It has less to do with creating the perfect picture, but rather expressing one’s feelings in colours and shapes. Colouring together is even more fun and fosters social behaviour through interaction with others. In times in which almost every child’s room is equipped with computers and televisions, colouring is a welcome diversion. |
Here children can discover their creative side. Their imagination is stimulated and they can give colourful expression to their thoughts. And on 6 May 2009, the World Kids Colouring Day, they can even use their pictures to do something good for other children.
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