As soon as children are welcomed to the wonderful world of exploration, they are exposed to various sights, sounds, tastes, and textures, holding endless possibilities for learning and growth. Sensory play is a great way to introduce your child to these various stimuli.
As parents and caregivers, we have the profound task of nurturing a child’s body, mind, and senses. After all, engaging their senses through different activities stimulates neural pathways, promotes cognitive growth, and enhances overall well-being.
This blog discusses what is sensory play and gives a few ideas you can do at home. It also explains why is sensory play important for infants. Try these captivating activities crafted with love and creativity, tailored to nurture your baby’s senses and cultivate a world of wonderment.
What is Sensory Play?
Sensory play is any activity that stimulates one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It encourages infants and children to explore and interact with different materials and environments to stimulate sensory development.
Children are born with their senses not fully developed. They mature over time as they explore the sensory world, with every new experience building a different sense. Through sensory play, young children learn to process and integrate sensory information, fostering cognitive, physical, and emotional growth.
Sensory play is an effective way to develop senses, including those with sensory processing differences, as it helps them regulate their responses to sensory stimuli.
Benefits of Sensory Play
- Cognitive Development: Sensory play helps babies develop cognitive skills by encouraging them to explore, problem-solve, and make connections between different sensory inputs.
- Fine Motor Skills: Tactile play, or activities that engage the sense of touch, help develop your child’s fine motor skills. It allows babies to grasp, manipulate, and explore various materials.
- Language Development: Sensory play provides opportunities for language development as babies respond to various stimuli, such as describing what they’re doing and how it feels.
- Emotional Regulation: Promote a calming effect on angry or anxious children by encouraging sensory play. It can also regulate their emotions and alleviate stress or anxiety.
- Sensory Integration: Some activities require multiple senses to be engaged simultaneously. Doing so promotes sensory integration, which is crucial for sensory processing and overall sensory-motor development.
Sensory Play Activities for Infants
Texture Exploration
Gather materials of different textures, such as soft fabrics, smooth stones, crinkly paper, and fluffy feathers, and place them in a box to create a tactile treasure trove. This activity encourages sensory exploration through touch and helps your child develop tactile discrimination skills, or the ability to differentiate information through the sense of touch.
Sensory Bags
These sensory bags are a mess-free way for your child to explore different textures and materials. Fill ziplock bags with colored gel, hair gel, or water beads and seal them tightly. Babies can squish and manipulate the contents, stimulating their sense of touch and providing a calming sensory experience. Ensure to check if the bag is properly sealed and that there are no holes to avoid leaking.
Food Play
This sensory play activity for infants helps your child learn about different food textures, smells, and tastes. It’s also an effective way to address picky eating habits as they explore various food options, such as cooked pasta, mashed fruits, or yogurt.
Food play doesn’t have to include squishing or smashing food. You can incorporate meal prep and food tasting as beneficial experiences to become familiar with new foods.
Homemade Musical Instruments
Creating various sounds and playing songs using homemade musical instruments calls for a fun learning and bonding experience. It engages your child’s sense of sight, sound, and touch and promotes cognitive development, fine motor skills, and creativity.
Choose safe and age-appropriate materials in creating homemade musical instruments, such as empty containers, cardboard tubes, rice or beans, bells, and wooden spoons. We recommend encouraging your infant to participate in the assembly process and motivating them to shake, tap, strum, or beat the instruments.
Scented Playdough
Scented playdough offers an engaging multi-sensory experience combining tactile exploration and olfactory stimulation. Make this sensory play activity for infants more exciting by using natural ingredients like cinnamon, lavender, or vanilla extract to add the scent.
Squishing, molding, and manipulating the play dough into different shapes boosts their creativity, while the fragrance engages their sense of smell and promotes relaxation.
Water Play
Set up a shallow water basin or tub and provide cups, containers, and bath toys for your baby to explore. You can add bath-safe toys or objects with various textures to enhance their sensory experience. Meanwhile, the sensation of water helps develop tactile and proprioceptive senses.
Sensory Bottle
This fun and mesmerizing activity serves as your baby’s visual and auditory stimulus. Fill clear plastic bottles with colored water, glitter, sequins, or rice and seal them securely. As they shake and observe its contents, they are captivated by the swirling colors, shimmering components, and soothing sounds, promoting visual tracking and auditory stimulation.
Mirror Play
Encourage self-awareness and visual exploration in babies with mirror play. Place a safe, unbreakable mirror in front of your baby and watch as they gaze at their reflection, make facial expressions, and touch the mirror’s surface. This sensory play activity for infants promotes social and emotional development while providing visual stimulation.
Your baby will eventually learn they are seeing their own face in the mirror and recognizing their reflection. Mirror play lets them be aware of themselves, from looking at their reflection to touching body parts they can only see with a mirror.
Nature Walks
Expose your child to sensory experiences by bringing them on a nature walk. Let them feel the grass beneath their feet, touch different textures such as sand, leaves, and flowers, and listen to birds chirping and leaves rustling. Moreover, the sun on their cheeks is a great source of vitamin D from early morning till noon.
Tummy Time with Textures
Incorporate textured surfaces during tummy time to develop your child’s response to physical stimulation. Lay your baby on a soft blanket with different textured fabrics underneath, such as faux fur, fleece, or knits. Similarly, you can lay them on their backs and brush the material on their stomach.
Indoor Obstacle Course
Provide exploration, movement, and sensory stimulation opportunities in a safe and controlled environment when you create an indoor obstacle course. Designate an area in your home free from hazards, such as sharp objects, loose wires, and furniture with sharp edges.
Afterward, place soft mats, blankets, or cushions for a comfortable landing surface. This helps cushion any falls and reduces the risk of injury. You can also add simple challenges, like low tunnels made of blankets and padded ramps for climbing.
Sensory Bin
A sensory bin is a container filled with various materials that appeal to the senses, such as different textures, colors, shapes, and sizes. A plastic storage bin, shallow tray, or clean bathtub can work as a container. Consider placing items like rice, dried beans, crumpled paper, cotton balls, or fabric scraps. Plastic toys and natural materials like leaves, pinecones, and twigs also enhance the sensory experience.
Mess-Free Painting
Enjoy the wonders of painting without the mess that comes with it by squirting blobs of paint onto a piece of card and putting them in a sealable bag. Tape it to the floor as if you’re creating a canvas for your child’s future masterpiece. Let them explore and touch the paint as they turn into colorful blobs worthy of being hung on your refrigerator door.
Jello Dig
Jello Dig is a fun but messy way to stimulate your child’s senses. Prepare sugar-free Jello in a large container and throw some toys, plastic animals, foam shapes, or edible items like diced fruit. Make sure to use a lighter-colored mixture to lessen staining and a waterproof mat to make cleanup easier.
Introduce Jello Dig by encouraging them to use their hands to dig, squeeze, squish, and explore the Jello. Make it a fun game of searching for hidden treasures that pique their curiosity and interest.
Sensory Storytime
Foster your child’s love for books and storytelling at an early age. Select picture books with simple, repetitive text, bright and colorful illustrations, and engaging sensory elements like touch-and-feel textures, lift-the-flap surprises, and sound effects.
It also helps to set up a cozy and inviting space for sensory storytime, free from distractions and noise. Use soft blankets, cushions, and mats. You can also dim the lights, put scented candles, or play calming music or gentle nature sounds to enhance this experience.
Explore Sensory Play Wonderland with Kids
Having the knowledge and appreciation for sensory play activities for infants impacts early childhood development. By engaging their senses through various activities, babies learn the world around them while developing essential cognitive, motor, and emotional growth skills.
Incorporate sensory play into your baby’s routines and provide endless possibilities for learning and exploration. May you continue to nurture curiosity and creativity. So, grab some materials and embark on a sensory-rich adventure with your little one today.
Learn more fun activities for your child’s development by visiting the Rayito de Sol blog.
