Surprising Benefits Of Painting For Children

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” — Pablo Picasso

The messy activity of painting is the one activity that all young children enjoy. Parents also benefit from it since only basic resources like paints, brushes, paper, a bowl of water, and a cleaning cloth keeps the child occupied for a considerable amount of time. It becomes an additional fun activity when parents join in!

However, painting is much more than just children making another mess! Let’s deep dive into how painting benefits your children. 

Surprising benefits of painting for children

A book published in 2016 named Essential Play Therapy Techniques: Time-Tested Approaches by Charles E. Schaefer and Donna Cangelosi talks about different therapeutic techniques for children and their power. The book covers why painting is an excellent activity with multiple benefits. 

• Encourages self-expression. Painting is a magnificent tool to enable self-discovery as it allows children to put their experiences, especially emotional ones onto paper. 
• Enables creative thinking. Children look at situations in a new way while painting. They need to make multiple choices, such as which colours to use, how to place content, and how to apply strokes. It allows children to explore their creative preferences and individual style. 
• Promotes empowerment. Children create characters, events, and places while painting. It helps them fantasise and build a world on their own which promotes a sense of mastery and empowerment. 
• Boosts self-esteem. Paintings give children a sense of pride in their work. When a child’s paintings are appreciated, it boosts their self-esteem. Since painting does not have any arbitrary standards and there’s no one right way of doing it, so it benefits all children—the ones who want to do things perfectly and the ones who lack confidence. 
• Relaxation. Painting provides a comforting place for children to relax and allows them to step away from the everyday challenges they face. 

In addition to these benefits mentioned in the book, if you look closely at the paintings made by your children, you will be able to discover many new things about them. You could also create a painting station with a wall where they could hang their paintings. 

As always, encourage your children, give plenty of compliments, and ask them many questions about their paintings to let them know that you are interested in everything they do. 

Did you know all these benefits of painting? Did these benefits of painting make you look at painting differently? Let us know in the comments below. 

Reference: 

Cangelosi, D., Schaefer, C. E. (2016). Essential Play Therapy Techniques: Time-Tested Approaches. United States: Guilford Publications. 

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• Take Advantage Of Mathematics In Early Childhood – Read These Tips 
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