What is sensory play? “Sensory play is the exploration of the world through any of the 5 senses: touch; smell; sight; hearing and taste.” Sensory activities are designed to help children develop thinking, language, social-emotional, and physical skills. Sensory play also encourages children to problem-solve while they create, play, and explore.
Sensory play does not have to be complicated. There is a plethora of accounts on Instagram dedicated to sensory play. You can also search “sensory play” on Pinterest for a bounty of creative ideas.
Sensory Play Ideas
Rice Table
Rice tables are a fun activity to begin developing baby’s sense of touch. Fill any medium-sized storage container with uncooked rice. Make sure it’s big enough to add cups or bottles for baby to scoop the rice.
You can also use foods like pasta, or beans; along with spoons and scoops. It’s also fun to bury small toys for baby to discover.
Sensory Bottles
Fill an empty water bottle with small things that are visually interesting. You can use items like marbles, beads, pipe cleaners, glitter, sequins, etc. Anything small and colorful will work for this. Add water and use non-toxic glue to secure the cap back on to ensure spill-free play.
Alternatively, you can mix clear glue with the water to create a sort of “calming bottle.” Add a few drops of food dye and a bit of glitter before gluing the lid shut. Your baby can shake the bottle and watch the glitter resettle more slowly.
Make Musical Instruments
Children tend to enjoy crafting their very own musical instruments. With a little assistance, kids can create a variety of instruments with things found around the house.
It’s pretty simple to put together paper-cup maracas or a tissue-box guitar. All you need are some rubber bands and a box, or cup, and something to fill the maracas with. You can play around with the different sounds things like rice, beans, or even small pebbles make in your maracas.
Ice & Water
Teach your baby about temperature safely with a little bit of water and some frozen miniature toys. Trying to grasp the ice cubes and toys will also help with their hand-eye coordination.
Freeze small toys (like action figures or blocks) into ice and let your baby explore the cold sensation with their hands–(and probably their mouth too, so watch them carefully; and, don’t use anything too small for baby). You can also provide baby-safe things to chip the ice with and warmer water to contrast the cold, and melt the ice.
Play-doh
There are plenty of recipes for making your own dough at home. You can even add color or scents to any recipe.
However, if you don’t want to make your own sensory dough, you can buy play dough almost anywhere. Let baby roll, slice, and chop away the time. Play dough’s squishy consistency is great for working on those fine motor skills. Pounding and rolling is also a great way to let out a little extra energy.
Note: Never leave baby unsupervised when participating in sensory play.
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