Colouring has never been LM’s favourite activity. No number of new crayons, pens, pencils and markers or colouring books with her favourite characters could make this idea attractive to her. In the end, it was strong reinforcement, moving from very small basic pictures towards more complicated drawings with multiple sections and ensuring that she is successful at each step which got her to accept colouring as not such a bad idea after all.
Although her technique has greatly improved, she still struggles to stay within the lines. One way to progress in this area is to start with basic line drawings with smaller colouring areas and thicker outlines and gradually increase the colouring areas and fade the thickness of the outlines. Depending on your child’s level of skill you may start with colouring areas as small as one square inch and lines as thick as one inch to ensure that the child is successful at each step.
I have described here the Mandala activity I am starting with LM. Although the original right-brain method does not require colouring the patterns, I thought I might as well let her colour them in at the end of the exercise and also double this as a “Colouring within the Lines” activity. So my plan is to widen the outlines with a thick marker (to save ink) and then gradually narrow these down to see if that will help her improve this motor skill.
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