The importance of sensory play in kid’s development has been proven for many years to help kids build their cognitive skills. There’s no age to start sensory play with your little one. Brain development starts from birth and can be stimulated anytime.
Some of the many benefits of sensory play are:
- Motor skills– it improves coordination and encourages writing, drawing, talking, and walking.
- Social skills – our senses are closely connected to our emotions.
- Language development – improve communication and cooperation.
- Problem-solving – It stimulates critical reasoning.
- Calming – helps relax agitated kids.
The benefits of sensory play for infants and toddlers are so important that it should be part of their daily growth. Below I listed some sensory play ideas for any stages of a kid’s life.
Sensory play starts from birth. For newborns from 0 to 5 months of age, it involves elementary activities that help your baby discover its surroundings with simple baby play activities like:
- Cuddles – skin-to-skin contact, face touching.
- Breastfeeding
- Talking and singing
- Kissing
- Bath time
- Listened to music or the sound of nature
- Massage
- Bicycle legs
- Sensory blankets
- Outdoor sensory activities like outside walks in different ways, in your arm or pram, to feel the wind, the smell of nature.
Try some of the activities below based on the ability and age of your baby:
- Movement – improve their gross motor skills by offering a few minutes of tummy time or back time on different areas like a mat or in the grass.
- Edible play– tasting and touching food is a great way to stimulate all our 5 senses. As soon as your infant is ready to transition to solids, let them touch and feel their food. It’s messy but a great simple edible sensory play. Provide different homemade baby food based on their age to involve different temperatures, textures, and flavors.
- Sensory blankets– touching different fabrics or some that make sounds are fun for infants and surprising.
- Natural material –let them feel nature, grass, leaves, sand, dirt, and water.
- Light– light boxes, and shadow puppets are fun ways to make babies discover light.
- Music– any baby-safe toy that is light and safe to shake to make sounds.
