Autonomy at a young age
Independence begins much earlier than we might think. In fact, as soon as a child begins to crawl, walk, babble and feed themself with their hands, they are introduced to independence. The desire to want to move around on their own, to want to communicate with others, and to try to feed themselves without help are all little things that point to independence.
Often when we hear about independence, we think of when the child expresses feelings, tries to tie his coat, or is able to put their bag away. However, before doing these tasks that require a lot of dexterity and patience, the child needs to start at the bottom.
So, how can we help the child to develop his autonomy in a simple, creative way without putting pressure on us from a young age. This is what we will discuss in this article. We will see in more detail how to offer the activity of drawing and coloring to the child in order to stimulate his autonomy.
Drawing in relation to autonomy
Drawing is an important part of a child's development. It is an activity that brings so many benefits, but how does it relate to independence?
Drawing is much more than a fine motor activity, even though it is often practiced for that benefit primarily. When children color, they develop their autonomy in all sorts of ways. This is the reason why this activity is so much suggested for elderly people who are losing their autonomy.
In addition to stimulating autonomy and all the other benefits, drawing and coloring are therapeutic activities that can be practiced by everyone.
The benefits of drawing
Indeed, drawing is an activity with various benefits, however we will focus on the benefits that are related to the child's autonomy. Whether it is opening the cap alone, choosing their own colors or choosing what they draw, all these steps are choices that the child makes.
The child practices autonomy at the motor level by manipulating different objects by themself and at the social level when they explain their drawing to adults or when they converse with other children. They also practice autonomy by choosing the drawing they want to do with the colors they decide when they want to.
It is therefore, following this information that it could be interesting to bring coloring and drawing as a daily activity if the child shows interest in it. A simple way to make the child benefit from these multiple benefits is to provide him with drawings, pencils, templates... In this way, they will be able to choose by themself when and where they want to draw.