Paint—it’s everywhere at Bing! It’s an inviting, accessible and engaging material for young children—but what do children gain from working with it? At the Bing Institute’s Fall Educator Lecture, teachers Emma O’Hanlon and Laura Berquist explored this question in depth, elaborating on the developmental benefits of painting for the growing child and its value as one of Bing’s five foundational basic materials—blocks, clay, paint, sand and water.

Paint and Physical Development

Painting provides numerous opportunities for advancing physical abilities including fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and visual perception (Danko-Mckee & Slutsky 2003). In addition, teachers regularly observe children developing gross motor skills, sensory integration, grip strength and balance when working at the easels.
Research has documented that the act of painting promotes lateralization of the left and right brain hemispheres (Feldman 2003), improving the brain’s ability to integrate functions such as creative thinking with planning and execution.
Paint and Emotional Development

The process of painting can be a soothing sensory experience for young children. At Bing, it often aids in separation from caregivers and can be used as a tool to process emotional experiences.
The medium of paint has the ability to transform feelings and ideas into visual form, offering children a means of communication other than verbalization.
Engaging with and conversing about paintings (both those created by children and professional artists) promotes an awareness of and an appreciation for the aesthetic qualities in art and in life.
The act of painting supports the development of self-efficacy, self-restraint and self-correction (Feldman 2003).
Paint and Social Development

Painting supports the development of a self-concept (Feldman 2003).
It provides an opportunity to observe peers in their process and connect through a shared interest.
Group painting invites planning, turn taking and collaboration.
Painting also supports group project work as a method of documentation and sharing children’s ideas.
Paint and Cognitive Development

Painting involves a number of cognitive tasks for children, such as “experimentation, exploration of cause-and-effect relationships, critical thinking skills, and visual discrimination” (Danko-McGee & Slutsky 2003).
While painting, children encounter opportunities to learn about colors, shapes, sizes, textures, categorization and numeracy.
Painting inspires planning, problem solving and symbolic thinking, as well as discussions involving a child’s own observations and evaluations.
Paint and Language Development

Painting can encourage children’s discussion of art terminology, qualities of the paint, order, direction, location and spatial relationships.
Children often incorporate story elements into their work or provide a narrative of their thoughts and theories while they work.
Research with young children suggests that children who are encouraged to draw and paint at an early age will later learn to compose stories more easily, more effectively and with greater confidence than children who do not receive this encouragement (Applebee 1988; Clay 1995).
Finally, painting also provides the opportunity to explore visual patterns, imagery and literacy concepts that precede formal writing (Olshansky 1995).