Why Sensory Play For Toddlers
Sensory Play For ChildrenWhy Is It Important. Furthermore these activities support children to use the scientific method of observing forming a hypothesis experimenting and making conclusions.
Sensory play activities can naturally entice kids to come close and investigate.
Why sensory play for toddlers. With sensory play theres always much more going on than meets the eye. Sensory play known for helping children develop mindfulness skills can also be excellent for helping to calm a child who may be feeling anxious or angry. They are learning about concepts like time and opposites so activities that compare light and dark and sorting colours will encourage toddlers in their exploration.
Sensory play works to build skills on several levels. According to Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky a childs greatest self-control occurs in play 1978 p99. We have already explained why is sensory play for babies important in the development of their brains and neurological pathways.
I have seen first hand the way messy play and sensory play can be used to help a child calm and focus on a task. Sensory play for preschoolers and babies fosters creativity and encourages children to explore their world in new ways. Sensory Play and Language Skills Playing with different types of textures tastes and objects help your child build new ways of talking about the world.
When a child is playing with a sensory bin they are using multiple senses to learn about the world. Sensory play establishes a foundation for preschoolers to be able to work towards more complex tasks strengthens language development improves problem-solving skills and supports cognitive growth. The foundation of sensory play is play with our senses aka tactile learning.
One of the most obvious is the ability to learn sensory attributes. Taste play helps bring new sensations into their world and helps associate food with fun. Children of all abilities can participate in sensory play.
As they grow and develop babies and children continue to process and respond to their environment using their senses. Whenever we go to the playground they want to scoop dump and throw wood chips. What smells nice what doesnt and lots more.
Sensory activities in addition to being fun and interesting for babies and young children encourage children to explore and investigate. When a child is young and still developing it is important to engage or activate each of the sensory systems so that they can integrate and grow into one cohesive sensory system. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brains pathways which lead to the childs ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
Children especially babies and toddlers are hypersensitive to the world around them because theyre still learning how to take it in. Sensory play supports language development cognitive growth fine and gross motor skills problem solving skills and social interaction. Sensory play builds observational skills.
There are many other benefits though. Getting kids in close proximity to one another is the first step to interaction. Peers who are typically developing may be apprehensive to approach a child who looks or acts different than they do.
They use innate reflexes to respond to external stimuli such as the sucking reflex to feed. Through play children learn what cold smooth and rough are. Sensory development in children is probably the biggest benefit of sensory play.
Children gain information from the world around them from the moment they are born. Babies can enjoy simple sensory play toddlers and preschoolers thrive on it and older children can benefit from it as well. Sensory play helps to build neural connections in the brain basically this means it supports a childs brain development sensory play fosters creativity it improves hand-eye coordination its great for fine motor skills development.
Even adults can benefit from sensory activities as they can help them to destress and work on mindfulness. Here are 5 reasons why sensory play is beneficial. Another benefit of sensory play is allowing a child to become more comfortable in different situations and under different stimuli.
Sensory play also helps to build new pathways in the brain. Sensory exploration is a childs way of examining discovering categorizing and making sense of the world and its beneficial to provide them with opportunities for sensory play. As children get older you can utilize sensory activities as a way to destress or improve focus.
Sensory play is a very important part of child development. Touch play helps children learn to experience the world using their hands. Creating sensory bins bags and bottles is a great way to engage your child in a learn through play activity.
Sensory experiences for toddlers and babies help develop skills such as motor skills language scientific thinking and problem-solving. My 3-year-old is especially fond of play dough and his focus during that activity always amazes me. Every time it rains my kids want to go outside and splash in puddles or play in the mud.
Benefits of Sensory Play for Toddlers Toddlers are usually developing their thinking abilities and will start trying to do things for themselves. Sight play encourages children to explore colors and experiment with light. Theyre seeing how the rice moves hearing the way corn meal sounds when it pours and touching all parts in the sensory bin.
