
This enables a child to perform a variety of tasks. A child can become confident in sharing ideas with others, also.įine motor skills are defined as the coordination of small muscle movements which most often involved hand-eye coordination. As a child works with someone else during playtime, he or she learns to understand other ways of looking at things. Sensory play can also teach a child about collaboration and cooperation. This can boost a child’s confidence in decision making, and inspire eagerness to learn and experiment. Without realizing it, a child is learning and analyzing during playtime.Ĭertain sensory play options allow children to be in complete control of their actions and experiences. A child can build science skills such as cause and effect, gravity, and states of matter like melting ice. In addition, a child can build math skills such as comparing sizes, counting by matching numbers to objects, matching sizes and shapes, and sorting or classifying items like buttons or toys. When presenting children with a problem and a variety of materials with which to find a solution, the connections in their brain begin to work. A child can develop prewriting skills while pouring, grasping, spooning, and working on hand-eye coordination tasks using various toys and items.Ĭognitive skills are sharpened by sensory play with decision making and problem solving. For example, the word “slimy” can be explained by what it means with different adjectives, but until a child experiences something slimy firsthand, that is all it will be-words. Sensory play encourages a child to use expressive and descriptive language and to find meaning behind essentially meaningless words. It can be frustrating for a child to attempt to say something without the proper words to do so. And, a child learns best and retains the most information when engaging the senses.Ī child cannot define parts of language until experiencing the true meaning of the word. Time spent stimulating a child’s senses helps to develop language, cognition, social and emotional skills as well as being physical and creative. Sensory toys and activities naturally encourage a child to explore and use scientific processes while playing, investigating, creating, and exploring. Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates a child’s senses, which are sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell.
