Sensory play – laying the foundation for growth
From the moment your child is born they begin learning about their world through sensory experiences. As children grow, play becomes the main way that they learn about and interact with the world around them. Research has shown that sensory play during a child’s early years helps build those neural pathways laying the foundation for learning more complex tasks as your child grows and develops.
What is sensory play?
Sensory play includes all activities that stimulate your child’s senses. When we think of senses, we instinctively think of the five senses – sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. But sensory play also includes anything which encourages movement and balance. Engaging all of your child’s senses helps them learn and grow from an interactive perspective.
Initially, your child will interact mainly through the five senses and as they enter the toddler phase they also interact with the world through movement and balance. The play provides children with a fun and unique way to engage with the world, encouraging growth naturally through fun.
Benefits of sensory play
- The first 3 to 4 years of a child’s life is a time of rapid growth and development. As they grow from infants to toddlers and pre-schoolers, they process vast amounts of information, and this forms the basis of their knowledge in terms of how they interact and see the world.
- Sensory play also plays a positive role in language development, cognitive growth, and problem-solving, as well as helping develop their social and emotional skills. Play time also has a positive impact on a child’s fine and gross motor skills development.
- Sensory play has added advantages of building observational skills, and abstract thinking as well as encouraging creativity and experimentation. It also helps children develop mindfulness skills and can often be used as a way to calm down your child.
Ideas and activities
Sensory play should be lots of fun and it isn’t necessary to rush off to the shops to buy a whole lot of equipment – you have everything you need right at home.
Sensory bins are a popular activity, and you can easily create one with a large container filled with a combination of different textures like sand, dried rice, and pasta through to leaves and cotton wool balls – the choices are endless.
It shouldn’t be complicated, and we often forget that it can be as simple as singing nursery rhymes, making playdough, gloop and fingerpainting. Bath time is another opportunity for fun sensory play – simply add bubbles, toys that float, toys that sink, and different smelling bubbles.
The most important thing to remember is that sensory play should be fun and never needs to be a forced activity. There are so many ways to naturally introduce it throughout the day – you just need to get creative.
See our Sensory and Fine Motor Development Section here.
