What Is Sensory Play? The Benefits for Your Child and Sensory Play Ideas
What is Sensory Play
Sensory play is a type of activity that encourages a child to use their senses, including sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Engaging in sensory play is essential for a child’s growth and development, as it helps to develop important skills such as language, motor skills, cognitive growth, social interaction, and experimentation. Additionally, sensory play can also help to address the often neglected proprioceptive and vestibular systems. Proprioception involves awareness of one’s body, while the vestibular system enables us to maintain balance during physical activities.
Sensory play can involve activities such as riding a bike, playing with slime, or listening to music. The benefits of sensory play include promoting language skills, improving fine and gross motor skills, aiding cognitive growth, calming children, and fostering social interaction. Sensory play ideas and activities include sensory bins, finger painting, and exploring textures with different objects.
The benefits of sensory play for your child include:
- Promoting cognitive development – sensory play helps children develop problem-solving skills, explore cause, and effect, and build critical thinking skills.
- Improving fine motor skills – sensory play involves using the small muscles in the hands and fingers, which helps develop fine motor skills.
- Enhancing language development – sensory play encourages children to use descriptive language to talk about what they are experiencing, which helps improve their communication skills.
- skills such as sharing and turn-taking.
Engaging in sensory play activities can have a positive impact on children’s emotional well-being, social skills, and language development. When children participate in sensory play, they are able to regulate their emotions by exploring and expressing their feelings in a safe and engaging environment. Sensory play encourages social interaction and communication as children work together to explore and discover.
Sensory play encourages children to use descriptive language to talk about what they are experiencing. For example, if a child is playing with water, they may describe the water as “cold,” “wet,” or “splashy.” This helps them develop their vocabulary and express themselves more effectively.
Sensory play helps improve social language skills in children by promoting turn-taking, sharing, and cooperation. Children engage in negotiation, problem-solving, and emotional expression during sensory activities, which provide valuable opportunities for social skill development in a fun and engaging way.
Sensory play is a useful tool for second language learners, as it makes language learning more engaging and enjoyable. By associating new words and phrases with concrete experiences, children can better understand and retain the language they are learning.
To help children develop their language skills through sensory play, let them explore various textures and materials. Encourage them to describe their experiences using words and ask open-ended questions to prompt them to use their language skills. Join in on the play and use language as an example for your child, offering feedback and support as necessary.
Sensory play can be a valuable tool for promoting language development in children, and incorporating sensory play into your child’s routine can have long-lasting benefits.
Here are 6 sensory play ideas to try with your child
Water play – fill a tub or basin with water and let your child play with cups, spoons, and other toys.
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Sensory bins – fill a bin with materials such as rice, beans, or sand, and provide tools such as scoops and containers for your child to explore.
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Play-dough – provide your child with play-dough and tools such as cookie cutters, rolling pins, and plastic knives.v
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Sensory bottles – fill a bottle with materials such as glitter, beads, or water and let your child shake and explore.
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Messy play – provide your child with materials such as paint, shaving cream, or pudding and let them explore and create.
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Sensory play is an essential part of a child’s development, and busy boards are the perfect tool to provide them with various sensory experiences. Busy boards, also known as sensory boards, are interactive play panels that consist of multiple elements that engage children’s senses, including touch, sight, hearing, and more. Busy boards help children develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional skills, making them a valuable investment for parents and caregivers.
We at BusyBoardslondon.com value sensory play and offer well-crafted busy boards to promote children’s development. Our boards have a variety of sensory elements like locks, latches, zippers, buttons, and mirrors. These elements help children develop fine motor skills and encourage curiosity..
Our sensory busy boards are made from non-toxic materials, and each element is carefully chosen to provide a safe and engaging play experience. Our boards are customisable, allowing you to create a board that meets your child’s unique needs and interests.
Whether you are a parent, caregiver, or educator, our busy boards are the perfect tool to promote sensory play and support child development. We are committed to providing exceptional customer service and offer fast reliable shipping. Shop our selection of busy boards today and give your child the gift of sensory play!