How to Teach Your Child Colors
Teach at your child’s pace., Take it one color at a time., Use identical things to make color comparisons., Make your lessons interactive., Avoid using color names before nouns.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Teach at your child’s pace.
You can start introducing lessons about color when your children are around 18 months, but most toddlers won’t start fully grasping the concept of colors until they’re around three years or older.
It’s fine and even encouraged to start teaching them about colors before then, but be sure to take it slowly and don’t despair if they aren’t getting it.One of the reasons that colors are so difficult to understand is because they exist all around us all the time and in such great variety.
It’s much easier for children to distinguish between two distinct shapes than it is for them to compare two different colors.The more examples your child has, the more likely they are to understand a color.
So, even if they don’t get specific colors early in their development, repeated exposure to a color like red through verbal identification and active lessons (like sock matching and finger painting) will help them refine the concept as they grow. -
Step 2: Take it one color at a time.
While you may want your child to master the whole rainbow all at once, they’ll be much more likely to retain lessons about colors if you introduce them one at a time.
Give your child a chance to really master blue before you move on to red.All children learn differently, but it’s generally a good idea to introduce no more than one new color per week.
You can have fun with this by assigning colors for each week--Blue Week, Red Week, Yellow Week, and so on.
Gear your activities towards the week’s color.
Serve blue foods; have them wear blue clothing; give them blue paint to play with, etc.
Even if you’re focusing on one color, it’s helpful to start by having another color for comparison.
Your child will be more likely to understand what “green” is if they have an example of what green is not.
You might, for instance, present them with two balls and say, “This one is green; that one is not green.” , The focus of lessons should be the colors themselves, which means that you want to minimize any other differences between the objects that you are asking your child to compare.For instance, you should use a green block and yellow block of the same size to help your child distinguish between the two colors.
Don’t use a green block and a yellow ball because the child might get distracted or confused by the difference in shapes. , The more of your child’s senses that you can activate in the learning process, the better.
Pick activities that allow toddlers to touch, feel, smell, and hear things in addition to just seeing the colors.For instance, if you use orange and red fruit snacks for a lesson, your child can interact with the objects on many different sensory levels.
Being able to touch, smell, and taste the learning tools will make their learning more active, which helps the lessons sink in.
If you’re trying to get your child to remember the names of various colors, try introducing a video that teaches them a song.
That way, their verbal memory will be activated by exciting sounds and visuals.
If you want to combine dancing with catchy rhyming lyrics, try The Teaching Station’s “Color Song.”If you want to go color by color, try The Busy Beaver’s popular collection of “Color Songs” that run from red to “grandma’s purple car.”, Studies show that how you verbally introduce colors to children makes a difference.
To avoid confusing your child, you want to isolate the color as one property of a thing (“this ball is red”), without making it seem like it’s part of the name of thing (“this is a red ball”).
Placing “red” at the end of the sentence also helps focus their attention on the color, not the thing.
For instance, your youngster is more likely to understand blue as blue if you say, “This block is blue,” than if you say, “This is a blue block.” Keep this mind while you give any lessons about color, and your kids will retain what they’ve learned much better. -
Step 3: Use identical things to make color comparisons.
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Step 4: Make your lessons interactive.
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Step 5: Avoid using color names before nouns.
Detailed Guide
You can start introducing lessons about color when your children are around 18 months, but most toddlers won’t start fully grasping the concept of colors until they’re around three years or older.
It’s fine and even encouraged to start teaching them about colors before then, but be sure to take it slowly and don’t despair if they aren’t getting it.One of the reasons that colors are so difficult to understand is because they exist all around us all the time and in such great variety.
It’s much easier for children to distinguish between two distinct shapes than it is for them to compare two different colors.The more examples your child has, the more likely they are to understand a color.
So, even if they don’t get specific colors early in their development, repeated exposure to a color like red through verbal identification and active lessons (like sock matching and finger painting) will help them refine the concept as they grow.
While you may want your child to master the whole rainbow all at once, they’ll be much more likely to retain lessons about colors if you introduce them one at a time.
Give your child a chance to really master blue before you move on to red.All children learn differently, but it’s generally a good idea to introduce no more than one new color per week.
You can have fun with this by assigning colors for each week--Blue Week, Red Week, Yellow Week, and so on.
Gear your activities towards the week’s color.
Serve blue foods; have them wear blue clothing; give them blue paint to play with, etc.
Even if you’re focusing on one color, it’s helpful to start by having another color for comparison.
Your child will be more likely to understand what “green” is if they have an example of what green is not.
You might, for instance, present them with two balls and say, “This one is green; that one is not green.” , The focus of lessons should be the colors themselves, which means that you want to minimize any other differences between the objects that you are asking your child to compare.For instance, you should use a green block and yellow block of the same size to help your child distinguish between the two colors.
Don’t use a green block and a yellow ball because the child might get distracted or confused by the difference in shapes. , The more of your child’s senses that you can activate in the learning process, the better.
Pick activities that allow toddlers to touch, feel, smell, and hear things in addition to just seeing the colors.For instance, if you use orange and red fruit snacks for a lesson, your child can interact with the objects on many different sensory levels.
Being able to touch, smell, and taste the learning tools will make their learning more active, which helps the lessons sink in.
If you’re trying to get your child to remember the names of various colors, try introducing a video that teaches them a song.
That way, their verbal memory will be activated by exciting sounds and visuals.
If you want to combine dancing with catchy rhyming lyrics, try The Teaching Station’s “Color Song.”If you want to go color by color, try The Busy Beaver’s popular collection of “Color Songs” that run from red to “grandma’s purple car.”, Studies show that how you verbally introduce colors to children makes a difference.
To avoid confusing your child, you want to isolate the color as one property of a thing (“this ball is red”), without making it seem like it’s part of the name of thing (“this is a red ball”).
Placing “red” at the end of the sentence also helps focus their attention on the color, not the thing.
For instance, your youngster is more likely to understand blue as blue if you say, “This block is blue,” than if you say, “This is a blue block.” Keep this mind while you give any lessons about color, and your kids will retain what they’ve learned much better.
About the Author
Julie Harvey
Creates helpful guides on crafts to inspire and educate readers.
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