Sensory Play
Source: What Is Sensory Play? (Cleveland Clinic, Posted: March 18, 2022)
According to the experts at Cleveland Clinic, activities that engage all of your child’s senses, accelerated learning and growth. Sensory play focuses on activities that engage your child’s senses, helping them develop language skills and motor skills. It helps build nerve connections in their brain’s pathways, which can help your child complete complex tasks. It also helps with cognitive growth, fosters social interactions and encourages experimentation.
Language skills
“When a child participates in any sort of play, sensory included, they’re learning through experiences in their environments and learning different ways to communicate emotions, wants and needs” - Suzanne Messer, MS, OTR/L
Fine motor skills
Through tactile play that focuses on building, pouring and mixing, your child builds on their ability to use small muscle groups and coordinate movements.
Cognitive development
Asking questions, thinking about how things work, doing experiments and analyzing results are all part of healthy cognitive growth. It’s how we learn something new and figure things out. It’s also how we problem solve.
Calming effect
“Sensory play can be used to help regulate your overall arousal level. You can use it to stimulate a child who might be a little sluggish. On the other end, sensory play can help a child who might have hyperactivity or trouble paying attention.” - Suzanne Messer, MS, OTR/L
Foster social interaction
By engaging in sensory play with siblings or peers, your child begins developing social skills. They’ll learn how to communicate, how to troubleshoot problems and learn to adapt to how others play.
