Coloring not only helps to occupy a child for some time, but also makes a significant contribution to the development of his creative potential. Anti-stress coloring books also help relieve tension in children, which they are in from an early age due to the fact that the child has to process a huge amount of information every day.
Coloring pictures will interest both boys and girls. There are thematic pictures and plots for children of different genders. They can be purchased in stores or simply printed out by downloading image files.
World Trend in Anti-Stress Coloring Books for Kids
Back in the last century, the Swiss psychiatrist and teacher Carl Gustav Jung noted that coloring a variety of pictures, stories and images helps reduce anxiety and promotes relaxation. Many adults enjoy coloring various pictures with their children or buy special collections of drawings with smaller parts and details for this purpose.
Anti-stress coloring books for girls and boys help children develop perseverance and teach them to finish what they started. These paper toys, which are simple in their essence, perfectly train a child's attentiveness and independence, while having a beneficial and relaxing effect on the psyche.
By coloring a picture, a child develops his hand, and new skills are formed. By developing motor skills, children prepare for writing while coloring pictures. In addition, they learn to combine colors, which develops creative abilities and stimulates thinking.
When working with coloring, the child uses markers, paints and pencils of different colors, which helps develop taste and form a sense of beauty. In addition to relaxation and developing taste, coloring also teaches him. With the help of bright images, you can study letters, numbers, shapes and names of colors with your baby.
When coloring pictures, the child undergoes a course of color therapy, which has a beneficial effect on the psyche of both adults and children.
Psychologists recommend regulating children's knowledge of this world and alternating active pastimes with quiet activities, for which coloring books are ideal.
Colouring black and white pictures in bright colours can be a real salvation for parents of hyperactive children. They will help little fidgets to relax, concentrate and calm down. It is great when a parent is actively involved in the process, it brings them very close to the child.
You can offer your child to color pictures when he or she has learned to hold a pencil well in his or her hand. For the youngest children, coloring books with very simple motifs are perfect, where you need to color 2-3 elements - for example, a mushroom, an apple, a pear. As the child grows and matures, the tasks should be made more difficult.
To convert images from black and white to color, you can use:
| Paints | Gouache, watercolor, acrylic, very young children can paint simply with their fingers, without using a brush. |
| Felt-tip pens | Drawings with them will turn out very bright and positive. |
| Gel pens | The images also turn out rich, but these pens are suitable for older children (4-5 years old). |
| Pencils | Teachers and educators recommend giving children pencils first and foremost. |
| Wax crayons | Ideal for painting large elements. |
Anti-stress coloring books are loved not only by children. The therapeutic effect of coloring various pictures and images is similar to the effect of a favorite hobby on a person. Everyone chooses something to their liking and relaxes in their own way.
For some, listening to their favorite music is enough, for others it is essential to go to the gym or go for a run, and for others it is important to lead an active nightlife and regularly visit clubs.
Some teachers and parents are skeptical about various kinds of coloring books of any theme, because they believe that the presence of pre-defined boundaries and the child performing the same type of actions when coloring slows down his development and prevents him from expressing himself.
The outlines of the drawings significantly limit the artistic impulses of children, they do not strive to depict anything independently and, even when copying from a sample, they are afraid to do something wrong, because it will turn out ugly. This point of view has a right to exist and every parent has the right to decide for themselves whether to give their children coloring books or not.
The only thing you definitely shouldn't do is force your child to color if he doesn't want to, or forbid him to do it if he likes this activity.
How do anti-stress coloring books work?
Anti-stress coloring books for girls and boys are great for relaxing children's minds, bringing them into a state of balance. When working with coloring books, different areas in both hemispheres of the brain are activated. When working on a picture, both logical and creative thinking are involved, for example, when a child chooses different shades and combines them.
During the sessions, the activity of the amygdala, which is responsible for fear and stress, decreases. Transforming black and white images into bright and colorful ones with your own hands allows you to calm down and gain strength. Regular sessions contribute to positive changes in the perception of yourself and the world around you.
Psychologists and teachers approve of the modern passion for coloring books by both children and adults. For adults, there are special coloring books called mandalas - pictures that are made up of many geometric figures.
This ultra-fashionable trend is very popular among adults today, but such plots are also suitable for older children, those who have already entered adolescence. In psychology, there is even such a direction as art therapy, which involves treatment with art.
In addition to contemplating the works of artists, experts suggest that people themselves be more active, not be afraid to create, draw and paint pictures. It is the repetitive actions that people perform repeatedly when painting scenes that have a relaxing, meditative effect on the psyche.
Anti-stress coloring books for girls and boys, as well as for adults, help:
- get rid of anxiety;
- improve mood;
- have a good time relaxing and unwinding;
- neutralize negative emotions and let go of bad thoughts;
- demonstrate artistic abilities;
- reboot;
- increase perseverance and concentration.
Experts see a positive trend today, when adults have stopped being shy and are actively and openly coloring pictures, just like children.
In fact, this is very good, since every adult is a former child who may have psychological trauma, and such art therapy will greatly help him not only to eliminate current anxiety, but also to work through some unpleasant moments from childhood.
Who will find them useful?
In childhood, coloring pictures is useful for all children without exception, because this activity, as noted earlier, perfectly develops fingers, promotes the development of the child's abilities. In some cases, certain categories of children can be shown such activities on a regular basis, while special plots and pictures are selected for them.
These could be:
- children with cancer;
- children with ADHD, autism;
- children who are in the recovery stage after operations or any serious illnesses;
- children suffering from neuroses, anxiety disorders.
Of course, in these cases, coloring can only be done when the child’s condition allows it.
In adulthood, people are usually drawn to coloring pictures if they liked to do this in childhood. This type of relaxation is also suitable for them in case of a number of health problems - cancer, depression, addictions, anxiety disorder, after operations. There are cases where anti-stress coloring books helped people recover from cancer, reduced general nervousness and anxiety.
Coloring options with examples
Anti-stress coloring books for girls and boys are widely available today both on store shelves in various magazines and books, and simply on the Internet. Some experts argue that there is no need to focus on the gender component and clearly separate pictures for different sexes. Perhaps this is correct and there is nothing wrong with a girl coloring a car and a boy a doll.
However, most boys and girls initially have different interests and today coloring book manufacturers try to take this into account, and also take into account modern trends and actively distribute coloring books, not only from classic familiar fairy tales, but also with favorite current heroes of modern children for both sexes.
For girls
Girls from about 4 to 8 years old love to color today:
| Lola doll |  |
| Unicorn |  |
| Applejack pony |  |
| Barbie doll |  |
| Elsa and Anna (Frozen cartoon) |  |
| Hello Kitty |  |
This does not mean that girls are not interested in other coloring books. Like children of previous generations, many of them enjoy coloring simply beautiful scenes and images with butterflies, flowers, animals.
For boys
Boys closer to school age begin to show more vividly masculine interests and hobbies. Some of them become interested in space, some are into sports, and some are ready to talk for hours about tanks and cars and do everything related to them. These preferences should be taken into account when choosing coloring books for a boy.
The boy will most likely ask to buy him a coloring book with images like:
| Among Us |  |
| Minecraft |  |
| PJ Masks |  |
| Paw Patrol |  |
| Cars |  |
| Bravo Stars |  |
At the same time, coloring pages with images of dinosaurs, transport, and robots will be relevant and interesting for boys.
Lightweight for small children
Coloring books with a minimum number of elements are suitable for small children. This will be quite enough for both teaching the child and for his relaxation. The simplest light coloring books can be offered to children starting from the age of one and a half years, when the child can more or less grasp a pencil.
Up to this age, you can simply use your fingers to color. There are even special finger paints (they are easy to wash off and contain gentle components) and many mothers allow their little ones to create, allowing them to draw on large sheets of paper on the floor and helping them color simple pictures.
The motives and subjects of the drawings at first will be simple and straightforward, for example like this:
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For little ones, there are also special reusable water-based coloring books. In this case, the task is simplified - the child just needs to move a wet brush over the drawing so that it appears.
Coloring pages for older children
Anti-stress Ruzukrashki for older children, both boys and girls, should have more complex motives, since otherwise they will simply not be interesting to them.
Teenagers can be offered:
| Mandalas and Zendalas (similar to mandalas but limited to a circle around the perimeter, whereas mandalas have jagged edges and resemble snowflakes) |   |
| The coloring books offered in art therapy are beautiful flowers, trees, figures, feathers, girls, fish, animals, insects, consisting of many intricate patterns inside. | , 
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Adolescence is a very difficult time, so if a child has found peace in coloring such pictures, it is very good. This peaceful way of putting thoughts in order will help ease his condition associated with hormonal fluctuations, relax and mentally recover.
Anti-stress coloring books are easy to find on sale. The benefits of such activities for girls and boys of different ages are great, as they help children learn to concentrate, bring things to completion, develop motor skills and relieve stress, which is very important.
By concentrating on coloring, the child immerses himself in his own special world, in which he feels safe, relaxes, and his nervous system and entire body come into a state of harmony and balance.
Video about anti-stress coloring books
Video review of the best anti-stress coloring books: