Therapeutic Benefits to Sensory Play

Sensory play offers the perfect setting for kids to explore and learn through play.

Sensory play focuses on activities that engage your child’s senses, helping them develop language skills and motor skills. It also helps with cognitive growth, fosters social interactions and encourages experimentation. 

Sensory play helps the brain develop nerve connections and encourages growth of language and motor skills. It can also provide emotional wellbeing to engage with oneself this way, as well as the social connection with others who interact in the play.

There are a number of benefits to incorporating sensory play into your child’s routine including;  

• Brain Development and Growth:Sensory play helps us build new brain connections and strengthen the ones we have. Through asking questions, thinking about how things work, doing experiments and analyzing results children are learning how things work and are figuring things out. 
• Regulation of Emotions: Being familiar with a tactile experience prepares you to handle it the next time you encounter that experience and any other time you experience something that triggers that emotion.
• Language development: Sensory play helps kids engage in more sensory experiences. By engaging the senses, children can learn how to describe what they’re doing and how it feels, eventually using more descriptive words to communicate.
• Developing Gross and Fine Motor Skills: Sensory play not only gives kids practice with manipulating objects, it actually can strengthen motor pathways in the brain. Tactile play that focuses on building, pouring and mixing, your child builds on their ability to use small muscle groups and coordinate movements. Gross motor skills include sitting, crawling, jumping and running – all which use your child’s body’s large muscles in their arms, legs and core (stomach area).
• Adds Ease to Daily Life: When kids enjoy sensory play, especially at a young age, they’re more likely to develop a tolerance to many different types of sensory input. A child’s level of comfort with sensory input can impact how the child is able to interact with the world around them. When sensory play involves siblings or peers, your child can begin to develop social skills. 

Sensory play is integral to the development of gross and fine motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills. As your child develops from infancy to childhood – sensory play is vital. 

Would you like more on sensory play? 

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