The Importance of Sensory Play

All throughout early childhood little ones use their senses to explore the world around them. The most common senses are: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But there are actually two more equally important senses that humans use to understand the world around them: vestibular (movement), and proprioception (your body's ability to know where it is). Sensory play is a way to activate and stimulate a child's senses. Sensory play helps little ones to safely begin to make sense of the many new things they learn each day.

Just a few benefits of sensory play are:

-It gives independence as little ones can, in a safe space, do as they wish and explore how they want to.

-It inspires creativity! Little ones get to use their imagination as they explore the world around them.

-It builds self-soothing skills they can carry with them for their lives. When big feelings such as frustration or anxiety arise, little ones can use their senses to ground themselves in reality. As they get older, hopefully they will be mindful of their senses and as to what they are feeling.

-It instills confidence! They gain confidence in their knowledge of the world as they can be themselves though exploring.

-It helps develop fine motor skills. Many sensory activities involve skills that us adults use daily such as: scooping, pouring, and stirring. It's important to keep the activities challenging but at a developmental level that a toddler would be capable of doing. So as little ones get older their sensory play will become more complex.

-It sets healthy boundaries. To be honest, some sensory activities can get messy. With a specific sensory activity set up, toddlers will have to learn to keep the mess in a contained area (of the adult's choice) such as a bin, at the table or on a blanket. If the toddler brings the activity out of the designated space they may not be able to continue the activity or will have to try again at another time when they are able to respect the boundary. Of course this is all up to the adult who is supervising the child.

Now that we've talked about what sensory play is, and the importance of sensory play for brain development, now let's look at a few easy- to -set up sensory activities for toddlers to enjoy.*

1. Noodle Sensory Bin

To set up this activity is super easy and quick! All you need to do is fill up a bin with dry pasta. You can leave it as simple as that or if you choose add some measuring cups, scoops, mixing spoons, or regular cups. Toddlers will experience sight, sound and touch as they scoop, pour, feel, and mix the dry noodles! P.S. The pasta could easily be substituted for dry cereal or even pompoms!

https://handsonaswegrow.com/pasta-sensory-bin-play/

2. Animal Rescue

This activity is another super easy one to set up. All you need is painting tape, toy animals, and a flat surface such as a cookie sheet. To set it up rip off a bunch of pieces of tape, flip your cookie sheet (or other hard surface item), and tape the toy animals to the flat surface. The goal of the game is for the toddler to "rescue" all the animals. It's a lot of work for little minds as they focus on peeling the animals from the tape. P.S. This is a great on the go activity for car rides or on an airplane!

https://busytoddler.com/2018/09/animal-tape-rescue/

3. Painting with Nature

This activity is just as it sounds! Take a walk outside with your toddler and look around in nature for leaves, sticks, or rocks. Then bring them inside, add a little bit of paint to a paper plate and use the nature you found as paintbrushes! Toddlers will get to use their creativity and fine motor skills to make something they are proud of with the beautiful nature they discovered.

https://pin.it/7s9OqBe

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*All sensory activity ideas came from Pinterest. Each activity is linked to give credit to the original creator.