Toddler Likes Black?

I wouldn't worry about it. If he were doing the same thing with the color green, you wouldn't be concerned. He just likes black. I would not read to much into it, especially if he uses other colors when black is removed.

I don't think so either, my daughter use to like the color black more then the others too.
I think is because it was easer for her to see? I don't really know but she move on. Now she likes pink but she have hard time difference pink and pig, so she would say:
Pink oink oink

no, i think too much negative stigma is associated with the color black. I love it, it looks good on everything, the little black dress, car, shoes, bag, etc.... Its quite possible your son just has style.

report back to us if he starts wearing black lipstick in 10 years. ;)

for now i think its fine, and actually, probably unique and an indication of a creative~ eccentric side.

And in a year it will be blue or pink or maybe it will be black.

It's a color. We, as a society, have deemed it "dark" and "negative", but he hasn't yet.

My 2 1/2 year old BOY wears a big blue flower clip in his hair whenever we go out. It isn't the flower, it's the clip that has "big teeth on it" that he likes, but the flower is attached, so it stays.

You really can't read too much into things they do at this age.

Don't read too much into it. It is, after all, just a color. My son loved pink. Pink pink pink. eek. Now I think he still likes pink but he'll choose blue or red more often. (and he also calls what I call red, pink - ie, the one cup from the set of 4 blue, green and yellow cups is pink to him & red to me). He wants to paint his room outer space blue. (Not pink, yeah!)

I don't think he will pick black for his room or all his clothes, etc. Just give him variety. But don't force it on him.

Oh and the coloring thing - my son has done the same thing - he'll click and color everything the same too.

i have a friend who's a developmental psychologist. We were chatting one day about this and she pulled out 2 kids' drawings (1st graders).

1) EVERYTHING was black. Flowers, trees, people, houses, sky, and himself.
2) Everything was in color except for the person in the middle, who was black.

She said the first one, it's pretty obvious... the kid likes black. The 2nd one, the boy who was drawing was sad/angry/depressed because the WORLD was in color, but HE was in black.

She also said, it's important to make sure when doing art therapy that you get several pictures from each child. For example, if a kid is feeling rushed they'll color everything in whatever color is handy scribble style, and when they do that, the color is invariable black. As well as they might just be in a "black cat at night" kind of mood, and it will have nothing at all to do with how they feel. AND that you provide a range of skin colors. Especially kids of African/ Carribean/ Australian decent will often use black to color themselves the same way caucasion kids will use black to outline themselves and not color themselves in. You see kids who pick skin color (I was one of those kids, I was ticked when there was no peach or tan and had to "blend my own" from brown and yellow and white and would come out looking blotchy), and those who just go for the color most frequently HEARD which means outlining on white paper, or coloring in. So when you see a "black" child, you have to double check that they're not of African/Carribean descent AND that they consistantly color themselves differently than they color the world.

My 3 years old son loves black too, so much that he goes to bed with his black crayon. I play a coloring game with him(any thing the you can figure out) a few times a week and now he starts using different dark colors.

When my other son was 2 his favorite color was pink. I guess because he had a lot of girl cousins and spend a lot of time with them. When he started preschool it changed to green then blue then orange now he is seven and say big no! no! to Pink and love all other colors.

From my experience with my boys, Just leave him to enjoy his black and sit with him to play coloring time and you can use other colors.

I know there are lots of responses, but my 2 year old seems to gravitate to black too. I realized the other day, it may be because I didn't "teach" him the color black, so it made him curious. I've been so focused on his learning "colors" and since I see black and white as neutrals, I've left them out. I think that has peaked his interest in the color.

I, personally, wouldn't worry about this at all. Your son is only 3.
I've done daycare for tons of kids and have friends who are teachers...lots of little kids like a black crayon because it's easily seen. White crayons are useless on white paper, pink and yellow and light greens don't show up well unless they press really hard. Black is bold.
There's no missing it, that's for sure.
Does he recognize his other colors but just prefers to use black?
If that's the case, I wouldn't be worried.

Like another mom mentioned, my nephew's favorite color was pink. He went through a real phase that had his dad a little worried, if you know what I mean, because he insisted on everything being pink. He was 4 or 5 and had a conniption because he wanted pink Power Ranger slippers regardless of how much pleading and cajoling there was to choose another color. He liked pink!
He grew out of it. He wouldn't wear pink to save himself now.

A year from now, your son will have a different favorite color.

I think he'll be fine.
Best wishes!

No. He's fine. My Son did the same thing.. colored everything black. He had a red phase for while with clothing.. he like being "mono-chromatic"
And remember, Black is not one, but an absorbtion of all color :)

It is an odd color but I wouldn't worry about it. My son is 4yrs and his fav color is brown! At his preschool, he did newspaper art and the teacher had to search other classes for brown paint! Valentine's day they made envelops out of construction paper, purple, pink, red etc. My son's was brown! Anything he colored in there was brown and if it had eyes, glasses cause he wears glasses! lol But his teacher did ask me one day why his color was brown. I have no reason for it either. She said it is an odd color and that he'd probably out grow it. Now he does say sometimes that pink and purple are his favorites but I think that is because of his sister!

I just don't make a big deal out of it. Especially since he knows his other colors too.

S.

black is beautiful. we are programmed to think it's an evil, bad or sad color. in fact, these ideas affect how we as a society look at and speak of black people. it's a good thing he likes black. he's a leap ahead of all the "black is bad, white is good" messages he will receive in his lifetime. my daughter's 3 and wears black often.

absolutely not! don't put problems where there are none. my son is a little wierdo too (i am kidding and would definitely never say this to his face, silly kid!) he likes black too, and at 3, coloring the whole screen one color is a definite fascination. at his preschool they did "scrapbooks", and she had one page where she asked them, what is your favorite movie, favorite toy, favorite color, etc...you guessed it, my son said black. there it was in black and white (haha) for all eternity. do NOT sweat this...kids are just goofy. just love him as he is. three is a little too young to go goth lol.

You sound like me a couple years ago. When my son was the age of your son,he used to color everything in black, or swriled colors together to create blacks, greys and browns. Now he uses other colors. I say, let him explore with his art, even if to him that means only using black. He is very likely to grow out of it in the next couple of years.

Cute story. When my son was 4 he painted a ceramic trivet at preschool for my Christmas present. He swirled all the colors together to make brown. You could see evidence of the other colors in little specks throughout. I have it displayed on a shelf in the dining room. This past Christmas (age 5) he said to me, "I didn't do so good of a job painting that present. It doesn't have pretty colors." I told him that he might not like those colors now but he did when he made it and that he was so proud when he gave it to me. I reminded him of how special his handmade presents are to me.

Is it possible that he picked up on the fact that it's a little disconcerting? It sound like he could be doing it for some attention. I'm not saying you don't give him attention! It reminds me of my niece when she was little. She always wanted to watch The Nightmare Before Christimas because my sister didn't want her to watch it. She picked that video out first every time for a while. I think she may have liked the skeletons and the mysteriousness of it as well, but the fact my sister wanted to ban it from her definitely added to her fasination.
Like everyone is saying, I bet this is a phase.

I don't think so. My almost 4 year old daughter always chooses blue, when given a choice in anything, which she says is her favorite color.

Awesome! Definitely not the same meaning as a teen with black nails, hair & eyeliner. Don't worry about it. He seems to truly be creative.

R. Faridnia, MSW

My daughter is the same way. She's three almost four and she loves to color stuff in solidly black. There was one time I played a game with her where we colored in big circles with every color. I lined up all the crayons and told her to take the first one, mark the paper, pass it to me so I could mark the paper then move onto the next crayon in the line. We did this and got a big kaleidoscope of colors and it was something I could put in a scrapbook instead of the things she does on her own, all in black. I understand art. She doesn't. I like to look at our swirls of color so that's what I wanted to save.

I set her up with a coloring book and a huge box of crayons and she gets to work on a page, I glance over and it's all one color, usually black but sometimes she'll pick another dark color. I asked her if she'd use some brighter colors like yellow or green and she said, "No black is good."

She has no concept at this age about what colors stand for. She doesn't see them as happy colors or sad colors. She doesn't know that red stands for passion, blue is calm or melancholy, that green could indicate illness or yellow is a happy color. She doesn't associate black with evil or sadness.

She just likes the bold way it affects the paper the same way we adults use black when we write or type. Black is traditionally chosen for lettering all over the world because it's bold and stands out against the paper very well even when you're filling the whole page in, it makes a statement. Japanese katakana, calligraphy, a hand written note with a bic pen. Most of the time it's done with dark blue or black ink because it allows you to see your markings very clearly against whatever you are writing upon. If you think about it, most three year olds can't write their letters. When they take pen to paper, or crayon as the case may be, they are making their marks with the best color to choose. Black.

The concept of art will come later. ;) Don't be concerned over his choice until he's 15 and starts wearing it on his face and fingernails in my humble opinion.

Hi Mama-
I have a fun art project for the black crayon connosseur... my grandma used to do this with us. Ask your son to scribble on paper solid colors. Take out all the black crayons. Make sure he uses bright yellows, oranges, blues, reds, purples, greens, browns, etc. BRIGHT. So he will need to press down, but not super hard. Then, hand him the black crayon and ask him to cover the whole picture in solid black. I mean SOLID. When he is done, get a penny or quarter, whichever is easiest, and have him scrape the black in fun swirls or lines. The colors underneath the black will show through, but the majority of the drawing will still be black. This may get him interested in using other colors just so that he has a nice colorful contrast under the black.
Another fun project is to get a crayon sharpener and sharpen his black crayon until you have lots of shavings. Put the shavings onto a piece of wax paper. Next, have him choose a couple of non black colors and sprinkle those shavings on top of the black. Next, place a sheet of wax paper over the art and iron it on low until all the shavings melt. When it has cooled, he can cut it (you should help him until he is good with the kid scissors) and cut out a shape. He can hang it in a window or stick it on the fridge.
I think the deal is not to worry about the color he chooses, but how you use the colors he chooses. Expand his process. If he likes black, start handing him the midnight blue, or cerulean. Chocolate brown and sienna are great dark, brilliant colors too.
Some people just really like the richness of certain colors better, and the paler the color, the less lively something looks. I am one of those, and I love black. Always have. Especially with white piping.
Hope this helps.
Have fun with craft and color time.
-E. M

I believe your child likes black. I do not feel that there is anything to worry about at this time. When he a teen and he wants to paint his room black, then you might want to worry. But right now he is showing independence, a nearly impossible thing to control. So let him enjoy his new found autonomy and you enjoy watch him self discover.

Have Fun!

My son loves black too - always has. I think it's because it's so high contrast on the paper. I volunteered in my son's kindergarten class and noticed that even the girls press really hard on their crayons to get a strong color and they get frustrated with yellow or the other pastels because they don't show up well. They all end up with tired and sore hands from pushing so hard with the crayons.
Your son is very clever and philosophical to me!