Sensory Activities to Do at Home

Squish, spin, splash, squeeze, bang, run, scoop, shake, drop, smear, toss, spray, and ooze, children absolutely love exploring their world through their senses. It can be messy, so you may often be inclined to cut this type of play short, but knowing how sensory play has an important role in a child’s health and development, cleaning up might seem like a small price to pay. Here are some of the key benefits of sensory play:

• Brain Development  Engaging a child in sensory play helps strengthen their brain development for learning, which enhances their memory and ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
• Language Development  Sensory play helps children learn new ways of talking about the world and things that surround them. It supports their language development and helps them communicate more effectively with others while they play.
• Fine and Gross Motor Skills  Children identify objects by touch during tactile sensory play, which helps them develop their fine and gross motor skills – such as squeezing, pulling, pushing and throwing.
• Social Interaction  A positive sensory play environment encourages children to interact and work with others effectively, which is essential for a child’s development. They begin to share their ideas and build new relationships.
• Adaptability Sensory play encourages children to adapt in new situations.
• Awareness  Active sensory play helps children become more self-aware and body-aware, which helps them develop a better sense of space around them.

Below are some simple sensory activities you can do at home:

1) Shaving Cream: place shaving cream in a tub or even the bathtub and allow your child to squish and paint with the material.

2) Cloud Dough: 2 cups cornstarch, 1 cup conditioner. Measure cornstarch into a container, add conditioner and mix until it is hard to mix, then use your hands to knead.

3) Coloring on sandpaper: tape some sand paper to another piece of paper or even a large cardboard box. By adding the textured paper, it will add a whole new experience to coloring.

4) Cooked spaghetti noodles: cook a batch of spaghetti noodles and once cooled add a bit of vegetable oil and some food coloring. Place the colored noodles in a big bin and allow your child to use safety scissors to cut the noodles and play with the texture of the noodles. 

5) Water beads: water beads are a magical creation. They come dry and super small, and like magic, once water is added they expand into a fun, squishy, bouncy bead to scoop and pour. You can find water beads on Amazon.‍

6) Letter Hunt: in a large tub, mix either dried black beans, dried macaroni noodles or sand with magnetic fridge letters. Use this opportunity to not only play and engage in their  senses but allow your child to search for letters in their name and it helps promote letter identification and recognition. 

7) Moon Sand: 8 cups of flour, 1 cup of baby oil. Combine flour and baby oil and use a pastry blender or fork to mix the two ingredients

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You can also find some fun and simple sensory activities videos on our YouTube page. Have fun!