Benefits of Painting

1. Fine Motor Control: are the small, precise movements we make with our hands, fingers, feet and toes. They involve the complex coordination of your muscles, joints and nerves.

The act of painting and manipulating a paintbrush, as well as various other tools, helps children develop fine motor skills by exercising and strengthening the hand muscles, fingers, and wrists.

Fine motor control is a complex process that requires:

• Awareness and planning.

• Coordination.

• Muscle strength.

• Normal sensation in your hands and fingers (or feet and toes).

• Precision (dexterity)

Examples of fine motor skills include:

• Holding a pencil and writing or drawing with it.

• Using scissors.

• Folding clothes.

• Typing on a keyboard.

• Fastening a button.

• Zipping a zipper

• Tying your shoes.

• Twisting a doorknob.

• Eating with utensils, like a fork and spoon.

• Playing video games using a controller.

• Playing an instrument, like a guitar, flute or piano.

Examples of adaptations include:

• Stabilizing: This refers to making toys or objects more stable while someone interacts with them. To prevent toys or objects from tipping over too easily, you can use Velcro®, suction cups, clamps or magnets to keep them in place while your child uses them.

• Extending or enlarging: This refers to adding something to a toy or object so that it’s easier to manipulate or grasp it. For example, you may add a large pencil grip to a pencil to make it easier to hold. Or you could add knobs to puzzle pieces to make them easier to manipulate.

• Simplifying: This refers to reducing the steps necessary to complete a task. For example, your child could wear Velcro-fastening shoes instead of shoes with laces to put on shoes more easily. Stretchy clothing may be easier to put on and take off than clothing that has zippers or buttons. Using a straw to drink may be easier than grasping and lifting a cup to your mouth.

2. Gross Motor Control: are the movements we make with large muscles, like those in your legs, arms and torso. “Gross,” in this case, means “large,” and “motor” means “movement.”

Gross motor skills involve the larger muscles of the body, which are also called into action while children paint. 

Some types of painting, such as those using a wide surface area to be painted (a wall, the paving, a large sheet of paper) and large painting tools, are good exercises for the large muscles.

Introduce a variety of brush sizes to build both fine and gross motor control.

Gross motor skills require proper coordination and function of:

• Skeletal muscles (the strength and power behind the movements).

• Bones (the structures that your muscles attach to).

• Nerves (the “messengers” of your brain that tell your muscles when and how to move).

They’re also related to other functions, including:

• Balance.

• Coordination.

• Body awareness and spatial awareness.

• Reaction time.

Examples of everyday movements that are gross motor skills include:

• Standing.

• Walking.

• Running.

• Sitting upright without a back support.

• Chewing.

• Jumping.

• Twisting your torso.

• Bending over.

• Moving/twisting your neck.

• Raising your arms and hands.

• Waving your arm.

Examples of hand-eye and foot-eye coordination skills that are also gross motor skills include:

• Throwing and catching a ball.

• Kicking a ball.

• Doing a cartwheel.

• Skipping.

• Swimming.

• Riding a bike or skateboard.

• Rollerblading or ice skating.

3. Eye-Hand Coordination 

Eye-hand coordination involves using information taken in through the eyes to guide both fine and gross motor activities.

4. Visual Perception: refers to the ability to interpret and make sense of visual information from the environment through the process of sight. Visual perception allows individuals to understand and interact with their surroundings by recognizing, organizing, and interpreting shapes, colors, spatial relationships, movement, and other visual attributes.

Visual perception is when the brain makes sense of what a person’s eyes are seeing. 

Painting may be used in several ways to support kids’ visual perceptual development, for example: 

Copying a picture that is set right next to them into their own painting

Completing partly-painted pictures

Finger painting shapes or other images

Painting within an outlined boundary on paper surfaces

5. Spatial Attention: the manner in which an individual distributes attention over a visual scene. Spatial attention is usually directed at the part of the scene on which a person fixates 

Also sometimes referred to as visual-spatial attention or visuospatial attention, this is the ability to visualize shapes in the mind’s eye. 

These skills are important for future work in math, technology, science, engineering, and visual arts. 

This skill is practiced before beginning a painting, when young artists typically imagine the plan in their mind, and even when turning the picture this way and that.

6. Creativity

Young kids are willing to take a chance on their creative activities and tend not to worry about the end result. A blank piece of paper and some materials are usually all the inspiration they need for creative expression.

If you can avoid giving children directions or models to follow, painting offers a great platform for creative development without being concerned about what other people think of their masterpieces.

7. Healthy Expression of Emotions

Children often do not have the words for what is in their minds and hearts.

8. Art Appreciation

Engaging in creative pursuits from an early age can teach children to appreciate visual art and notice it in their environment.

Learning about and observing the works of famous artists can encourage children to play around with trying that same style in their own artwork. They may experiment with their use of color a little more or discover new combinations of color, for example.

Kids also learn to appreciate the art of their peers and are guided by adults in giving positive feedback to each other.

9. Planning Skills

A painting activity gives children the opportunity to plan which paints and tools to use in their projects. 

Planning skills are important for children to develop because they help them perform everyday tasks, learn routines, and achieve academic success. Planning involves building a roadmap to reach a goal, deciding what's important, and breaking down larger objectives into smaller steps. Some planning skills children can learn include:

• Goal setting: Identifying an end goal and creating SMART goals

• Prioritization: Identifying main ideas and minor details

• Organization: Using checklists, calendars, and visual aids

• Time management: Ordering activities, setting reminders, and creating daily routines

• Communication: Sharing plans and managing when things don't go according to plan

Here are some activities that can help children learn planning skills: Playing board games, Baking or cooking, Creating a budget, Organizing an event, and Playing video games.

10. Pre-Writing Skills

These are the basic skills that are necessary for learning to write. 

Manipulating the tools used in painting, in addition to working with lines and shapes, are important pre-writing abilities incorporated into art and painting.

Pre-writing skills are important for children as these skills help them to hold and move a pencil easily, and write legibly. Just like a warm-up before rigorous exercise. If your child skips this step, there's a lot they will have to do and the development might get slower.

11. Sensory Development: the process of maturing the five senses, as well as the nervous system's ability to receive input from those senses and respond with appropriate behaviors or motor skills.

Painting is a wonderful, messy sensory experience. It gives children the opportunity to use most of their senses while working with various textures and colors. 

They explore their world through the various tools and materials used in art.

Sensory play has an important role in your child's development. Not only does it help your child engage their five senses—sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste—but it also boosts their language skills and motor skills. Sensory play also promotes exploration, creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving.

12. Attention Span

Kids learn to take it slowly with their art projects in order to get the results they want. 

For children who are easily distracted, having them paint often can help lengthen their concentration span over time, which is an essential skill for academic success.

13. Social Skills

Group art activities are usually a great way for children to develop their communication skills, as they are often brought together for an extended period of time. Kids love chatting away as they get involved in their creations, and they often comment on each others’ pieces or ask questions.

Painting can also be a way to practice prosocial skills by sharing paint, taking turns with brushes, complimenting others, cooperating if they are working on the same project together, etc.

14. Language Development: the process through which we gain the ability to comprehend and communicate through speech. Before acquiring fluency, a child may progressively comprehend fundamental verbal patterns and increase their vocabulary throughout this stage.

Painting can also give kids a platform for developing verbal skills by expressing themselves while talking about their works.

Parents and teachers can also use the activity as a way to introduce new vocabulary or ask open-ended questions about kids’ paintings, encouraging them to put their thoughts into words.

15. Cognitive Skills: the functions your brain uses to think, pay attention, process information, and remember things, constantly aiding your thought processes and memory retention. Some of these functions include sustained attention, auditory processing, and short-term memory.

Like any other form of play, painting can also provide opportunities for mental development, such as practicing decision-making skills and developing problem-solving abilities in a fun way.

Some examples of cognitive skills are literacy, self-reflection, logical reasoning, abstract thinking, critical thinking, introspection and mental arithmetic. Cognitive skills are the essential qualities your brain utilizes to think, listen, learn, understand, justify, question, and pay close attention

16. Sense of Accomplishment

A child who has created something unique will surely feel a great sense of accomplishment, which contributes to their sense of self and can build their confidence in their own abilities.

These are just a few of the painting benefits for toddlers and preschoolers.