[blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?

[Deborah Kent Stein]

I'd like to weigh into this discussion on coloring.  I very much enjoyed 
coloring as a blind child, although I didn't use standard coloring books.  I 
would draw with crayons because I could feel the wax on the page.  Sometimes 
my mother would make a raised line picture for me to color, using pinpricks 
or a sewing tracing wheel to make the outline.  I labeled my crayons so I 
knew what color I was using.  I think this was very valuable play for me. 
Filling in an outline was certainly good for fine motor coordination and 
tactile discrimination.  Also, coloring helped me learn a lot about how 
three-dimensional objects are rendered in two dimensions.  I learned about 
profile, front view, and aerial view, even a bit about perspective.  By 
asking questions and following directions I learned what colors are 
appropriate for what pictures - a house might be white or yellow but 
probably not purple or orange, for instance; and brown was for a rabbit but 
not blue or green.  Coloring was something that all of my sighted peers did 
on a regular basis, and I wanted to do what they did.  Fortunately my family 
was supportive and helped me find ways to make coloring a fun and meaningful 
activity.  When we did coloring at school the teacher would hand me a blank 
sheet of paper and I'd make my own pictures.

Today there are a number of raised-line coloring books available, and by 
using a coloring screen an adult can easily create a raised outline for a 
child to explore and fill in.  In our increasingly graphically-oriented 
world, it's important for blind kids to understand the basics of how 
pictures work.

Debbie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Heather Field" <missheather at comcast.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?


> 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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>>
>>
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