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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