Ick. Some kids just plain HATE coloring.
Mine was one of them. I once had the brilliant idea to have my DD do those math-puzzle sheets with the hidden pictures that are revealed with correct color-coding? Yeah. Well, all that
my 4-5yo DD got out of that was that (and she eventually told me so) she'd rather "do a million times with the flash cards, mama..." than do even ONE more color-it-in worksheet.
She
begged me to just let her do all of the math on those sheets, and not have to do the coloring too.
His teacher thinks that it is to do with his executive function (planning ahead to color quickly, ability to transition from crayons to pencils (on one worksheet, instead of coloring, he just shaded with a pencil), and says he is ADD. He also apparently moves very slowly when he has to get his lunchbag, pack up etc, without a real sense of urgency of time. He knows how to read an analog clock to the second, so his teacher finds his behavior very tiresome.
Uhhhh... WOW.
He. is. FIVE. Sounds like your teacher may be making the critical (and common/easy) error of assuming that your otherwise age-typical five year old SHOULD be his apparent
cognitive age. He's not. He's
five. MOST five year olds find it difficult to do things they dislike or find tedious/pointless. Sheesh.
They dawdle (because they don't really have an adult sense of URGENCY about much, lacking a natural sense of 'scheduling' and penalties for not meeting the 'schedule' appropriately), they meander, they explore, and they lack focus on boring tasks. Gee-- one wonders what she thinks the 'average' five year old child OUGHT to be like at that rate.
No advice. Just know that my DD has no particular fine motor problems whatsoever, and is certainly not deficient in EF (other than-- just like your child, being younger than her COGNITIVE age in that respect, and more like actual agemates, which can really throw adults who develop one set of expectations in talking with her, and find that she can't live up to them because she's actually 3-5yr YOUNGER than they are demanding).
She also hated (and still hates) coloring. Period. She likes to draw, she enjoys doing cartooning, captioning, and adores computer animation and complex art software, but she
will not "color" a pre-existing picture-- with any media.
Seriously-- when pushed on this point at 4-7yo? She would have carefully selected the right colors (or, if feeling subversive, the red-green colorblind version... or maybe the complement shades... or some other snarky defiant thing) and drawn careful,LARGE X's on the items "to be colored."
OR-- if no color was specified, she'd have colored EVERYTHING one color, probably black. To indicate her displeasure.
