[blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?

Heather Field missheather at comcast.net
Sun Oct 2 03:21:30 UTC 2011


Hi Richard,
Always pleased to hear your comments and I love your perspective as a dad of 
a blind child who is negotiating the inclusion experience. :)

I agree with you 100%that blind children should participate in learning as 
much about the world as they can. Crayons, markers, pencils, print, glue, 
scissors, paint and paint brushes, water-colours, oil paints; you name it, I 
believe that blind children should experience it and learn how to use the 
items correctly. I knew all my print letters by age eight and, when 
appropriate, engaged in art activities in which I could meaningfully and 
successfully participate. But, "successfully" is the operative word. In the 
example you shared with us, there was no "right way" for the children to 
decorate their super hero cape. Therefore, your child's choice to use 
markers and to create her own designs made it a successful art experience 
for her. She made her own choices and she did the work and made the designs, 
creatively engaging with the medium. When she was finished, no one could 
look at her cape and say that her artistic expression was "wrong".

However, the problem arises when we start talking about coloring. There is a 
"right way" and a very "wrong way" to do coloring. I disagree that there is 
a time when blind children should be made to color so we can all pretend 
that they're doing what the other children are doing after preschool. We 
need to deal with reality and it doesn't do the blind child any favours to 
make them color so that they consistently show their sighted peers how 
incompent they are at coloring while the sighted children improve. Even 
adapting the activity so that it's done on screen is not artistically 
pleasing because the colors cannot be appreciated. The purpose of coloring 
is to cover up the white space inside the outlined picture and to keep the 
color inside the lines. Everyone who can see can immediately tell, upon 
seeing the blind child's work, that it is wrong. This is not a positive 
inclusion experience for the blind child.

Most blind children have been in preschool since three years of age. By the 
time they are in Kindergarten they have had had more than enough 
opportunities, assuming a normal learning situation, to have all the 
experience with crayons which they need. Note, I say need. The TVIs with 
whom these parents have been dealing are claiming flat out that these blind 
children "need" to be coloring. In one case the poor child is being forced 
to waste his time coloring with crayons long after the other children are 
finished. Furthermore, this is not a one or two time art activity/inclusion 
experience. This is a case where blind children are being forced to color 
again and again, day after day just to pretend that they are being included, 
or that they are receiving some physical benefits which are patently not 
occurring.

We all agree that there is no perfect system and, just aschools for the 
blind have their drawbacks, the inclusion setting has some serious problems 
unless some really dedicated and skillful people are involved in making it 
work to truly educate blind children. I regularly go to IEP meetings and 
have to fight alongside parents to stop the foolishness being forced on 
blind children in the name of inclusion.

There is no place for coloring for blind children on a regular basis in my 
opinion. Certainly, to claim that the blind child should endure it day after 
day in the name of inclusion, or to benefit physically, when evidence 
demonstrates that the benefits simply do not occur,is unconscionable in my 
opinion.

I would let the profoundly deaf child attend a violin concert in 
kindergarten if the class were attending one, but I would not send her day 
after day to violin lessons, nor would I insist that she stay and practise 
her violin long after the other hearing students have left. Indeed, I would 
be willing to ascert that the teacher of the deaf would agree. A one-time 
experience is different from regular pretense.

So, to summarise. I am not saying blind children shouldn't be allowed to 
play with crayons, to draw and color to their hearts content in preschool 
and at home if they choose. However, I can see no educational value in 
forcing blind children to color pictures they can't see with colors they 
can't see during school lesson time. I remain unconvinced by any of the 
reasons that TVIs have given me for the benefits of this practise. And, 
blind children, in my opinion, should not always be doing identical 
activities to their classmates in the name of inclusion. When they cannot 
learn or express themselves creatively in the activity their sighted 
classmates are doing, then the activity needs to be replaced with another.
You have made some important points   regarding the need to ensure that 
young blind children be given lots of experiences, including interacting 
with the same learning media used by their sighted peers. With these points 
I heartily agree. However, I believe that enforced, prolonged coloring has 
no benefits, educational, social or otherwise for the functionally blind 
child.  I remain absolutely convinced that parents should prevent teachers 
from forcing blind students to color in the elementary school classroom. I 
recommend that they get it written in the IEPs of their blind children that 
no coloring will be engaged in in the classroom.
I always enjoy Carol's thoughtful posts and await her response to my 
question with interest.

Warmest regards,
Heather

-----Original Message----- 
From: Richard Holloway
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 12:08 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?

Heather,

I hope you don't mind if I weigh in on something you were directing towards 
Carol.

Your point is well taken, but I think there is at least a little (underscore 
"little") merit in letting blind children, particularly interested younger 
blind children, color a bit, if simply to do what the other kids are doing. 
I also think that's pretty much the only reason to have a completely blind 
student coloring with crayons in class. (I'm not too convinced as far as the 
finger strength claims.) Let's not deny blind kids the experience of feeling 
the sticky feel of crayon wax or knowing that "crayon smell" up close, for 
example. Some kids even learn the taste, but I'm not encouraging that 
"common experience"! I do still remember that sticky sound they make when 
they are lifted from the page, and that takes me straight back to my grade 
school, if not pre-school days. It isn't so much doing the same exact 
activity, it is sharing the same common experience, at least as much as 
possible.

My concern here is, to borrow the example of the profoundly deaf child, that 
this could be like telling a profoundly deaf child she MUST NOT go and sit 
with friends for a violin demonstration in a music appreciation class. There 
are socially appropriate reasons to offer these opportunities, and in that 
case, some visual learning that would sneak in to at least slightly offset 
the lost auditory learning opportunity.

With that said, why not use raised glue lines or perhaps screen wire to make 
this more interesting and yet be a sharing opportunity for the same general 
(crayon) experience, or better still (it seems to me) after the child has 
experienced the crayon drawing a bit, why not offer a related, but more 
tactile activity that is similar to what the other kids are doing in the 
same place at the same time? This is the point where the poor planning 
really comes in from a teaching standpoint-- now being the time to start 
crafting the same cow the other kids are crayon-coloring out of play-doh, 
for example.

Ideally (though it rarely seems to happen) some teachers even think to 
replace at least some highly visual activities for the WHOLE CLASS (like 
coloring with crayons) with other things at times which are more tactile. 
(Pipe cleaners, cotton balls, gluing pasta or sequins or beads, play-doh, 
clay, etc.) Some also give ALL the kids a couple of choices and make certain 
that at least one is non-visually focused. We have in fact sometimes found 
that the sighted kids think it is "not fair" that they cannot do the "cool 
things" Kendra gets to do. (A whole different discussion, but remember these 
are just kids...) So when feasible, why can't they? Let the sighted kids use 
clay instead of coloring. In fact, let the sighted kids use braillers too. 
Several of Kendra's sighted friends have learned a bit of basic braille 
during school, for example.

Let me offer another real-world story: Not log ago on a group family camping 
weekend, all the kids were decorating capes (there was a "superhero" theme). 
Kids each got a plain white plastic cape and there were markers to draw on 
them. Kendra has no light perception, but she knew what the other kids were 
doing so she asked for markers and even specified her marker colors. She 
then scribbled a fairly random but even distribution of various colors all 
over the cape. She was quite pleased with her cape and wore it proudly for 
the rest of the weekend. I would not dream of taking that opportunity from 
her. I realize you are not suggesting I should. I just want to be cautious 
before we start offering a "thou shalt not" approach for these sorts of 
things. Other things can get lost in the process of preventing "wasted time" 
on seemingly inappropriate activities.

Kendra has a favorite color, though she doesn't even know what a color 
really is. Her friends have favorites, so she does too. She wants to know 
people's eye color, hair color, clothing color-- you name it. She enjoys 
(conventional) letter shapes and knowing what at least some letters feel 
like. She doesn't  need to know print for most things she does, but she runs 
into A-frames, I-beams, D-rings, L-brackets, U-turns J-bolts V-belts, 
Y-splits. C-clamps, P-traps and S-curves just like we all do. We used to 
tell her not to "W-sit" when she was young and to this day, I doubt she has 
made the connection with a print letter. She hears that "X" marks the spot 
in drawings and maps, and she wants to know what the "K" in Kendra "looks" 
like to her sighted friends when it is on her shirt, for example. Only 
recently did she learn why an "O" and a zero ("0") are so easily confused 
for print readers. After all, for braille readers, a zero gets confused with 
a "J" but has nothing to do with an "O". Same thing with a lower-case print 
"L" and a one ("1"). If we shield her entirely from print learning because 
it may seem inappropriate, none of those things will make sense to her. It 
is, in a way, a similar problem as faced by non-braille reading teachers 
have when they fail to grasp D/F and H/J or other braille reversals or to 
get that a simple finger slip can quickly turn a "q" into a "p" or "r".

As to finger strength, you know what I think is a great tool to help build 
finger strength for brailling? A brailler. (Why not try one instead of 
crayons?) If the student is not a braille user yet, have the child 
"scribble" on a brailler. Likewise with a slate and stylus. Many of our kids 
have done it. Surely Kendra did. Working with Play-Doh or Clay also builds 
strength, and there are various little devices for that as well as 
specialized putty (whatever they call it) for various sorts of therapy. 
("Theraputty", is it?) It comes in different formulas. Some are softer, 
others more firm. Crayon-drawing as a routine approach for building blind 
kids finger strength is surely not the most practical or advisable approach, 
and using it all the time for a blind child surely is inappropriate.

With all of this said, do I think that TVI's needs to spend time working 
with crayons or even clay? Well, not unless these TVI's have way too much 
time assigned per student. Far more than simply needed to complete much more 
appropriate braille-related lessons. Maybe the classroom teachers or a 
para-pros might work on this but it doesn't sound like the ideal path to 
learning braille as far as I am concerned.

Surely you are right that there is too much incompetence and ill 
preparedness that many of our kids deal with. I just don't want us to react 
so strongly to it that we deprive our kids certain basic experiences when we 
respond to the incompetence. That's how it all strikes me-- your mileage may 
vary.

Richard


On Sep 30, 2011, at 7:02 PM, Heather Field wrote:

> Hi Carol,
> As, in the circumstances described in these posts by mothers whose 
> children have no usable vision, I can think of absolutely no useful 
> purpose to be served by colorin. Even coloring within raised lines has 
> very small value, except for older children who have attained hand 
> strength, co-ordination and abstract reasoning ability, and are working on 
> some kind of diagraming/graphinc or tactile art project.
>
> I liken this to insisting that profoundly deaf 5-year-olds attend violin 
> music appreciation classes. While your point on how much wasted time is 
> too much, is well taken, I don't believe this is the issue in this case. 
> The blind children are being compelled to take part in an activity under 
> false pretenses. It does not develop hand strength, co-ordination or fine 
> motor skills for what the blind child needs. When pursued in individual 
> circumstances with TVIs and blind children with no usable vision, I have 
> found in 100% of cases that the activity is chosen out of teacher 
> incompetence or ill preparedness.
> I would be interested to hear your thoughts on how coloring benefits blind 
> children.
> Regards,
> Heather Field
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Carol Castellano
> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 1:56 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
>
> I have a feeling there could be some middle ground on this issue.
>
> Some coloring may be a useful experience for some blind children.  I
> don't think coloring itself is the real issue--the real issue is the
> idea of wasting a child's time when he/she could be doing more useful
> things.  I think the fact is that in any classroom on any given day,
> part of the time of some child--not just a blind child--might be
> being wasted.  Is it okay to waste some of a child's time?  How much
> would be acceptable? Parents of many kinds of children--not just
> blind children--grapple with this issue.  Teachers do, too.  If
> parents/the team determines that the coloring is taking up too large
> an amount of time and is really wasting all of that time, then it
> should be stopped.  But if it's determined that the coloring serves
> some purpose and isn't taking up an inordinate amount of time, then
> it could be continued.  The answer would vary, depending on the child
> and the circumstances.
>
> If we take the idea of not wasting a child's time to its logical
> extreme, we find some difficulties.  In a classroom setting, we can't
> realistically eliminate any and all activities that might be wasting
> the time of any individual child.  Since classrooms contain a mix of
> children with a mix of abilities and interests, there will be times
> when the subject or activity is not completely appropriate for a
> particular child's abilities and needs.  My own feeling is that this
> can help a child to learn self discipline and self control :-),
> attributes that can help them in their later academic work and
> career.  It's a matter of degree.
>
> Carol
>
> At 11:28 AM 9/30/2011, you wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I am a TVI and blind myself. It is my experience that most TVI's aren't 
>> really very well trained in the area of early childhood. Thus, they find 
>> it difficult to come up with activities that really do develop fine motor 
>> skills for blind children. Further, many of them don't actually know the 
>> alternative, nonvisual methods that blind children will actually use to 
>> perform fine motor tasks, such as buttoning, snapping, zipping, tying, 
>> identifying coins, pouring, measuring etc. so they don't know the 
>> precursors to those skills. Also, as many of them are itinerant and must 
>> travel between schools, it is quite a challenge to organise and carry all 
>> kinds of hands-on activities/equipment for young blind children, 
>> replacing it often. So, it's not easy to do it well under the usual 
>> circumstances of the included/mainstreamed, young blind child needing 
>> fine motor skill development. It is much easier at the end of a tiring 
>> day when the children are doing art to simply justify the blind child's 
>> coloring with nonsense about fine motor skills and inclusion.
>>
>> In my opinion, this nonsense about coloring is simply a result of 
>> teachers not knowing appropriate alternative activities. Holding a pencil 
>> is a very specific fine motor skill that benefits writing for sighted 
>> writers. I have seen no evidence that it develops the kind of finger 
>> eexterity and sensitivity, or strength for that matter, that TVIs claim 
>> it does for blind children. It makes my blood absolutely boil when I hear 
>> of children's time being wasted on such rubbish. This is a skill that 
>> they will never use for anything. Yes, I've heard the old "strengthening 
>> for the slate for the slate and stylus and the braille writer", but I'm a 
>> blind adult and I never had my time wasted with coloring and I use my 
>> stylus and slate just fine. Also, the braille writer has three keys for 
>> each hand to push. If this rediculous coloring is supposed to be so 
>> important for developing hand strength, shouldn't the children be using a 
>> crayon or pencil in both hands? How does it mystically develop strength 
>> in the hand not used to hold the marker? This is clearly nonsense. 
>> Furthermore, Creative expression is supposed to be part of art and, 
>> unless children are specifically Coloring as part of an activity such as 
>> a math worksheet - "color the six dogs blue" - all the sighted children 
>> are expressing themselves creatively. I cannot agree with denying blind 
>> children this creative expression. When do they get to decide how their 
>> art will look?
>>
>> As for using coloring to justify inclusion this is perhaps the silliest 
>> reason of all. The blind child clearly cannot color and all his 
>> classmates see his incompetence. worse, they see that, unlike all of them 
>> who improve during the year, even with the help of an aide or teacher the 
>> blind child continues to be a pitifully bad colorer. How can this be seen 
>> as a positive factor in the inclusion of a blind child. Does anyone 
>> imagine for a moment that the blind child doesn't know that he can't 
>> color and that his coloring is worse than the other children? Why is it 
>> that TVIs will force children to color, telling them that they must learn 
>> to do what they don't like, but will not push them in areas of 
>> independence, such as being organised or travelling quickly down the 
>> hallway, even if they don't like doing so? these inconsistencies expose 
>> this coloring issue for the travesty is really is.
>>
>> there are so many things that young blind children should be learning. 
>> Threading, cutting, modelling, ripping, screwing - bolts & nuts, jar 
>> lids/containers - paper folding and twisting, a million and one 
>> manipulative/construction toys designed to strengthen small muscles. This 
>> coloring is just an excuse for lack of teacher versatility and 
>> imaginativeness.
>>
>> I have actually attended IEP meetings where we have challenged the TVI's 
>> claims for coloring for blind children. When closely questioned about 
>> their claims for its value, especially in reference to preparation for 
>> brailling when only one hand is actually being used, and with reference 
>> to future use of this skill beyond signing one's name in 10 years or so, 
>> they concede that it isn't really that useful. We then get it 
>> specifically written into the IEP that this child will "NOT be made to 
>> color with any medium for any reason. The child may use a crayon to mark 
>> with a check mark when correcting their work". Guess what, we have had to 
>> fight over it during the year, showing them the IEP to get them to stop 
>> making the blind child use scented markers in coloring; to stop them 
>> pretending to themselves that they are somehow providing a meaningful art 
>> experience to a child who has no idea what they're doing besides moving 
>> their hand randomly on the paper until the aide says "yes, that's good." 
>> The fact that the TVI agrees in an IEP meeting that it's meaningless as 
>> an art experience and inferior as a fine motor development activity, and 
>> agrees to have it prohibited in the IEP itself, and then proceeds to try 
>> to make a blind child color in class when they think they can do so 
>> without anyone knowing, speaks to me of the true nature of this activity.
>>
>> Can anyone tell that I am passionate about the topic of blind children's 
>> time being wasted by teachers making them color? If I were a parent of a 
>> blind child being made to color, I would immediately call an IEP meeting 
>> and have it written into the IEP that my child would not be made to color 
>> in any medium under any circumstances. Naturally they will argue but if 
>> you add up the time in any given week that your child is wasting his 
>> young life coloring, you will be convinced it's worth the trouble.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Heather Field
>> -----Original Message----- From: Meng, Debi
>> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:40 PM
>> To: Katie Cochrane ; NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind 
>> children)
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
>>
>> I did see the benefit at 3 and 4 but he should be beyond that.   Thanks 
>> for the advice.  I guess I need to find out what the goals are and if we 
>> can achieve them in another way.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
>> Behalf Of Katie Cochrane
>> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:05 PM
>> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
>>
>> My son is 3, and they spend a lot of time on coloring, too.  He is 
>> totally blind.  Our TVI explained to me it is important to build finger 
>> strength and dexterity for learning Braille, using a stylus to make 
>> Braille notes later, etc.  They also want him to get used to 
>> participating in tasks just like the rest of the kids in the class.  They 
>> do a lot of coloring of raised line papers, and they put textures under 
>> it.  We also have one of those musical coloring tablets (I think it's 
>> from Crayola) where it plays music as you scribble...the faster you 
>> scribble the faster the music plays. No matter what we do, it is not his 
>> favorite task, either, but I think the reasons they gave were reasonable. 
>> Have you asked your TVI what the reasons are for focusing on coloring at 
>> this point in his education?  I know my son is younger, but I would 
>> imagine all of these reasons will still be relevant when he is in 
>> kindergarten.
>>
>> Take care.
>> Katie
>>
>>
>>
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