The Importance Of Sensory Play for Toddlers

January 16, 2023

The most powerful way to support your child’s development and learning is through play and ‘Sensory Play’ is often the most enjoyed type of play for little ones (and us parents too!)

Sensory Play is crucial for brain development as it helps build nerve connections allowing for more complex thinking, encourages development of gross and fine motor skills, supports language development and provides social interaction opportunities.

As always never leave your baby unattended when exploring, plus playing together provides more opportunities for sharing, bonding and communicating.

Scoop & Spear

You want to use items that are going to stay on the spoon so your child has success!

You can pair this activity with the words “scoop” “up” “pour” “tip” and make sure you do lots of role modelling of the desired actions using your own spoon.

Coloured Rice

You can make this out of uncooked rice by mixing 1 cup of rice, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and your food colouring of choice into a container with a lid – shake it to mix and then lay out on baking paper to dry for an hour or so. You can add some fun little critters to collect or any other toys that will entice your little one to dive in! Giving them somewhere to transfer the scoops of rice into will help with encouraging using the spoon!

Fork Practice (Spearing):

In a saucepan combine,

2 cups Plain Flour,
4 tablespoons Cream of Tartar,
1 cup Table Salt,
2 cups Water,
2 tablespoons Cooking Oil
Food Colouring of choice.

Stir over medium heat in saucepan until mixture congeals. Rolling into little balls makes for easy spearing!

You could also roll into snakes or flat cookies and practice making indents with the fork tip!

About the Author

Tara Ient, Paediatric Occupational Therapist, first time mum and self confessed nerd about children’s play and development started @lets_play_charlie after having her first child Charlie and wanting to share the fun things they were getting up to with some OT developmental tips thrown in to support other mums!

You can follow Tara and Charlie on Instagram @lets_play_charlie