Sensory Play

Sensory Play is great for all ages! 

Sharron Krull is a Early Childhood Specialist, Author, Consultant & Play Guru she shares some idea on sensory play and the benefits. 

According to Krull sensory play includes any activity that stimulates a young child's senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Sensory activities and sensory tables facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.

Benefits of Sensory Play 

According to Krull a lot of learning can occur while children are doing what they do best: playing and exploring!

Physical Development—Fine and Gross Motor Skills: manipulating materials in a variety of ways—shaping, molding, dumping and splashing increases coordination, dexterity and muscle strength. 

•   Squishing play dough improves hand strength

•   Picking up smaller objects encourages the use of the pincer grasp (between the thumb and index finger

•   Finger painting promotes pre-literacy skills

•   Crawling and walking over and through different materials helps to develop an awareness of their bodies in space.

•   Rolling, pushing or throwing objects foster large muscle growth

•   Picking up an object to smell, taste, or hear supports hand-eye coordination

Cognitive Development

•   Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which lead to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks.

•   Promotes critical thinking by giving babies the opportunity to use their senses in new and meaningful ways.

•   Children are Introduced to math concepts when they have the opportunity to investigate materials by filing, pouring, sorting, scooping, etc.

•   Scientific concepts are presented as babies discover the special properties of materials (such as wet vs. dry, light vs. heavy, movement vs. stillness) plus the cause and effect relationship materials have when they are combined, shaken, thrown, rolled, or squished.

Language Development

•   Supported when adults talk to young children to describe what they are experiencing.

•   Infants and toddlers will increase their communication skills by expressing themselves to their peers while playing and exploring together.

Social Development

•   Working closely together at the sand and water table gives infants and toddlers opportunities to observe how peers handle materials, try out the ideas of others, share their own ideas and discoveries, and build relationships.

•   Promote a community of cooperation as babies work together to manipulate materials and share their ideas with each other.

•   Help children learn to navigate challenging social situations, such as taking turns, sharing materials, and dealing with frustrations.

Emotional Development

•   Great for calming an anxious or frustrated child

•   Lend to children’s expression of positive feelings, such as joy and excitement

•   When children explore new and different ways to interact with materials, they build self-confidence and independence by making decisions

•   Children develop a positive self-image by discovering the many amazing ways they can use their minds and bodies.

•   When teachers acknowledge and accept children’s preferences (i.e., dry vs. wet and slimy), children learn that their feeling and decisions are valid.

Krull lists several ideas of sensory acitivites to do with your children at home:

Splish, Splash!

Pour a bit of water in a baking sheet or cookie pan and add a few baby play balls (sensory balls, oballs, etc.).  Baby on tummy will explore the water and play with the balls. It might even become a full body play when feet, legs, and belly get into the water too.  Baby experiences the feel of the wet and cold water, sees the ripples and splashes the water makes as he moves it around (cause and effect), hears the sounds of the water, and even tastes it.  What a learning adventure!

Water Scooping

Playing with water is a favorite activity for babies.  Fill a large, shallow bowl with water and provide your upright baby with simple scooping tools for open-ended exploration.

Baby Safe Cloud Dough

Pour 1 cup Rice Cereal into a container.  Add 3 tablespoons of melted Coconut Oil to the Rice Cereal.  Mix and let the mixture cool.  It shimmers. It’s soft and fluffy, powdery and flaky—all at the same time.  It can be molded into balls, shaped and explored.  Encourage language development by talking with your baby about the textures and smells.

Yogurt Finger Painting

This edible finger paint is simple and quick to make.  Plain yogurt (usually unsweetened and tart to the taste) + Kool-Aid or food color.  The Kool Aid powder has no added sugar and smells yummy, so give it a try and make all the colors of the rainbow.  Just mix them together and set out for baby.  Sometimes playing with your food is a good thing!  Baby could also “paint” with clear Karo Syrup and food coloring, applesauce, pudding, and colored ice cubes.

Colorful Cooked Spaghetti

Boil pasta in water as though you were going to eat it.  Strain it and divide it into bowls and color each bowl a different color of food coloring or liquid watercolors.  After it cools, let baby squish and pull, etc.

No Mess Finger Painting

Plop little blobs of tempera paint onto card stock.  Tape cling wrap over the top of the paint and let the kids swirl and mix the paint around.  When the children are finished remove the cling wrap and let dry.  Peel it off and you’ll have both a beautiful painting on the paper as well as a lovely cling wrap art piece (just stick it on the window and let the light shine through)!

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