For children, play is not just fun, it is an integral part of their development! As they begin to explore the world around them, play will be the foundation of many of the skills they need to grow throughout their childhood and beyond.
Play is essential for developing skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, and executive functioning, and it’s how we learn, not the process of what we learn. Since children are naturally dependent on their senses, a specific type of play, called sensory play, can help them take in and learn from it.
Here, we’ll cover what sensory play is, the different types of sensory play, and how to incorporate it into your child’s daily life.
What Is Sensory Play?
In a nutshell, sensory play refers to games or activities that stimulate a child’s senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. It also promotes a child’s sense of balance and body awareness.
Play is the natural language in which children communicate and process their thoughts and emotions. Sensory play refers to any activity that combines the five senses, such as digging in sand, singing, listening to music, or playing with textured toys. The possibilities are endless and can be incorporated into your and your child’s daily routine, regardless of their age.
Types of Sensory Play
Although, in general, sensory games involve any type of activity, as long as one or more senses are involved, there are several types or categories of sensory games. These different types include:
- Visual and sensory games: Improve children’s visual sense and visual processing skills through games such as hide-and-seek, shadow puppetry, and color mixing activities.
- Auditory sensory play: Help children learn different sounds and improve their listening skills. Activities include listening to or playing music, reading books, and playing clapping games.
- Tactile sensory play: stimulates the child’s sense of touch. This can include any activity that explores objects with your hands, such as playing with sand, plasticine, or slime.
- Taste & Smell Sensory Play: Explore your child’s sense of taste and smell through activities such as smelling flowers and tasting different foods, fruits and vegetables.
- Vestibular sensory games: Our vestibular system is located in the inner ear and helps us interpret movements, such as moving or stationary, fast or slow, and the direction in which we are traveling. Activities include rolling, swinging, running, and jumping.
- Prorioceptive sensory games: The proprioceptive system enables your body to sense its position in space and perform actions simultaneously without thinking (e.g., dribbling while running). Activities include pushing, pulling, climbing, chewing, and blowing bubbles.
Luckily, every type of sensory play can be integrated into your child’s daily routine!
Sensory Play Activity Ideas for Different Age Groups
Overall, there is no right or wrong way to play with the senses, as you and your child can be creative in ways that work for both of you, Davis explains.
With that in mind, here are some fun sensory play ideas for different age groups:
Sensory Play for Babies (0 to 12 months)
To stimulate your baby’s senses, here are some fun ideas:
- Let your baby hold and shake the rattle
- Gently stroke and tickle your baby
- Play music or sing a song
- Play with a baby safety mirror
- Play with stacking rings
- Expose your baby to different fabrics and textures such as cotton, wool, velvet, etc.
- Play with blocks of different sizes
- While reading a board book, ask your baby to help turn the pages while looking at the pictures
- Play peek-a-boo and clapping
- Bouncing, rolling, and throwing balls of various textures
- Crawl over or under safe objects around the house
- Fill toys and objects of different shapes, colors, and textures into bowls or buckets (make sure none of them are small enough to swallow!)
Sensory play for toddlers (1 to 3 years old)
Early childhood is the best time to use sensory play to explore! That is, you should always make sure that, depending on the activity, your child will be able to play with certain objects without having to put them in their ears or mouth. (You know your child best!)
Here are some sensory play ideas for toddlers:
- Use plasticine or kinetic sand for construction and carving
- Finger painting
- Play with a bowl of cooked and cooled spaghetti (so soft!)
- Fill a portion of the water bottle with water and add glitter or food coloring (be sure to seal it with tape)
- Playing in a ball pit (inflatable or plastic)
- Create your own sand table: Load the sand into a container or baking tray and let your child explore the texture of the sand, bury toys, and draw shapes with their fingers
- Use pots, pots, and spoons to make your own instruments
- Go for a walk outdoors and point out different sounds, from birds and other animals to cars, lawn mowers, etc.
- Use a brush or have your child use their fingers to apply shaving cream to a table or other flat surface (paper is too thin)
- Go on a scavenger hunt nearby, look for flowers (and smell them!), different textures (pine cones, grass, etc.), and so on
Sensory play for older children (3 years and older)
As children grow, they gain more freedom when exploring their senses. Some sensory play ideas for preschoolers (and older kids) include:
- Playing with food – really! Some studies have shown that preschoolers who engage in sensory play with real fruits and vegetables are more likely to try these foods, as well as other new foods.
- Use dirt, sticks, grass, etc., to “cook” with nature to make simulated food.
- Jump rope or trampoline
- Ask your child to help bake bread or cookies, especially pouring and mixing ingredients
- Playing with water droplets (safest for older toddlers and children)
- Find toys or bricks of different sizes and have your child sort them from oldest to smallest
- Blindfold your child and let them guess different foods based on their tastes
- Play a game of hide and seek or “I watch”.
- Play with sensory toys such as fidget spinners, pinballs, soft balls/creatures, spinning tops, and magnets
- Engage in artistic activities, such as drawing with scent markers
- Use tape from the floor, outdoor logs, or other safety surfaces as balance beams
- Create a sensory box: Use pasta, rice, or beans and add small toys of all shapes and sizes that kids can play with, cover, and bury with spoons and spoons