Sensory Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers
When children are young, they interact with the world through their five senses (touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, and smelling). Engaging your toddlers and preschoolers in sensory activity will help them to develop their cognitive thinking.
There is no right or wrong way to participate in sensory activity. These activities encourage children to explore and investigate their surroundings.
Beneficial reasons for this type of play includes:
- Building nerve connections in the brain
- Supports language development
- Encourages scientific thinking and problem solving
- Children can block out the noise around them and focus on the activity
Sensory play is known for helping children develop skills that can also be an aid to calm an anxious child.
Playtime offers several items that are developed for sensory play. One of the items is the Flowerbox/planter. ( https://playtimeus.com/product/flower-box-planter/ ). With this piece of equipment, the child can dig in the soil using the sense of touch, smell the soil using the sense of smell and see the growth of plants using the sense of sight. Perhaps the children can plant vegetables, and they use their sense of taste and be able to get satisfaction in growing their own food. The Flowerbox/planter is used in many daycare centers throughout the nation for this type of play as well as adding a “natural” diversion to your playtime routine.
Musical instruments are another way to add sensory play to your daily schedule. Playtime has several different toys that meet these standards. First is the chime ( https://playtimeus.com/product/musical-chimes/ ). Our chime encases an entire octave on the ringing out of the notes played. With the mallet that comes attached to the chime the children can use their sense of hearing to listen to the music they are creating.
The next piece of equipment is the Xylophone ( https://playtimeus.com/product/xylophone/ ). The sense of hearing comes into play with the xylophone as well. The xylophone is made to withstand outdoor rugged play.
Our new piece of equipment that hit the Playtime lineup is the Tom Tom Table. This is our new percussion instrument. The children will be able to hear the beats and feel the vibration as they play on their own triple drum set. (https://playtimeus.com/shop/tom-tom-table/ )
These are just some examples of sensory play. You can explore and develop your own ideas to add to these suggestions. Developing time in your schedule to incorporate these ideas will help your children to achieve great lifetime success.