All you need to know about sensory play!

Sensory play is all kinds of activities that involve and stimulate the child's senses - touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste! In sensory play, touch is the most stimulated. Why are sensory play and activities so popular? What is the benefit of sensory play and why is it important? And what are some examples of sensory play?

Why choose sensory play?

Sensory play stimulates the child's senses and brain development is stimulated through these sensory impulses! Sensory hands-on play stimulates the nerve endings in the hands and fingers that are responsible for speech, helping to promote language development. Working with hands and feeling different textures develops the child's fine motor skills, which also positively affects the development of logical thinking and helps prepare the child's hand for writing.

Sensory play, such as working with grains, provides the child with different sensory experiences, such sensory activities are very calming and engaging for the child. In addition, the world, various materials and their properties are explored through sensory activities.

Sensory play is also popular for its relevance among children, in sensory acitivities the child will be engaged for a much longer time compared to traditional toys. Why? First of all, the child can act creatively, exploring different materials at his own discretion and creating his own rules of the game. Second, the sensory stimulation is calming, the child will experience it as a kind of meditation.

But what exactly is sensory play?

These are activities where the child can feel! It can be a container with grains and various spoons and bowls, it can be kinetic sand with molds or even a container with water and various small objects. Sensory play can also be enjoyed in nature, allowing the child to touch various natural materials, sand and mud.

Creating a sensory bin is very easy!

Pour sensory base - grain, sand, water or anything else - into the container add various tools for the child to pour, pour and operate. Spoons and small dishes, cups will fit perfectly also add a variety of small items to look for in the sensory base or to spoon into dishes!

For children under 3 years of age, always be present during play!

Another very simple idea for sensory play is to pour some water into a large bowl, add some balls or small toys, a large kitchen spoon and a dish. The child can feel the water with his hands and play freely, fishing toys out of the water with a spoon or scooping water into a bowl and pouring it out!

 But I fear the mess from sensory play!

Yes, sensory play can be messy, but the benefit to a child's development far outweighs the potential mess. Also, as the child grows bigger, the messiness will decrease. For start choose materials that are easier to clean!

Kinetic sand is one of the best sensory play materials because it is so versatile in its uses. Pour a packet of kinetic sand into the container, a great activity will also come from just the sand, because the child will be able to knead it with his hands, feel it and build. Kinetic sand keeps its shape perfectly, you can add different shapes to it. You can also add small toys, cars and other items relevant to the child to the kinetic sand, the child will be able to create his own play worlds and play freely!

Sensory play is a great way to promote a child's development in a fun and diverse way with an activity that will fascinate children for a long time, promote creativity, practical skills, calm down and at the same time develop fine motor skills, coordination and concentration!

Sensory play is very close to our hearts at MEKID, we also include items in our toy store that will be great for sensory exploration! Take a look at our instagram profile mekid.eu and get ideas for exciting games!

Have a creative sensory play!

Your MEKID team