Why are sensory tasks so important for littles?? Our babes use their senses to explore and learn about their world! Sensory play is crucial to brain development to build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways to support cognitive growth, language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem solving skills!
Sensory Activities to try at home
Hot and cold water play
What I love about sensory activities, is how simple and effective they can be, and how you can make it easier or more challenging depending on the age of your child.
Items needed:
- 1 plastic or non-breakable bowl
- Foam letters/numbers (usually found in the bath toy section for less than $5.00
- Ice cubes
- Food coloring (optional)
Step by step instructions:
- Fill the clear bowl about 1/4 of the way with warm water. Add a few drops of food coloring to add some visual stimulation
- Add your foam letters/numbers until they are coated with water
- Allow your little to play in the warm water with the foam toys describing how the water feels, use words like “warm, wet, soggy, slippery, etc.” to broaden baby’s vocabulary and a generalization about what they are experiencing
- For older toddlers, instruct them to take each letter and place them on a window (or the wall of a tub). Talk to them about what color each letter/number is, phenomes (what the letter sounds like), and what each letter may be used for in a word (ex. A is for apple).
- Next, we are going to change the water temperature by adding ice cubes! Allow your little to touch and feel the ice in the bowl and describe to them what is happening as the water gets colder
- You can modify this task for younger babies by just using warm water, and adding ice, skipping step 4
What are we working on?
- Sensory processing: experiencing the different temperatures of water
- Safety: Educating your little on the word “hot” and why we need to use caution
- Cognition: color recognition of the water and alphabet/number foam pieces, and listening to instructions
- Language development and speech: Discussing phonemes and examples of words starting with each letter
- Motor coordination: by squatting and standing to place the foam pieces on the window
Digging for treasure!
The first thing I should draw your attention to is parenting hack 101: the $5 plastic baby pool. This thing has literally been a catch-all in more ways then one. We kept the pool indoors all winter long for fun sensory activities that made for easy clean up!
This is an easy sensory bin I made within minutes with random things I found around the house. Simple to put together during nap time, and lasted about 20 minutes of playtime (which is amazing for a 9-12 month baby). And to clean up? Just tilt the pool and pour the extra rice back into the bin! Done and done.
Items needed:
- Plastic bin
- Your pantry sensory item such as uncooked rice, uncooked pinto/lima beans, dried chickpeas, etc
- Small items to “hide” in the rice such as buttons, pom poms, googly eyes, corks, cut up sponges,
- Try to include things with vibrant colors & different textures
- Optional: A larger bin to set your baby in or tarp to catch the mess
- Optional: food coloring and vinegar to dye your rice (see how to dye rice in the link below) https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/dye-rice-sensory-play-colored-rice/
What are we working on?
- Sensory processing: tactile sensation, visual stimulation
- Cognition: attention to task, cause and effect
- Fine motor skills: using a variety of grasp patterns such as raking to dig for treasure, pincer grasp to pick up an item
Water Beads
If you haven’t heard of water beads yet, it’s time to give them a try! I’m not sure who had more fun, me or my toddler! *Disclaimer* Water beads can be a dangerous choking hazard. This activity requires full supervision.
These little guys pack a punch for a multitude of activities. This was Caroline’s first time using water beads so we stuck to just casually exploring the sensation this time around. I put them in a clear bowl to easily see the colors for visual stimulation. I allowed my baby free (supervised) range with the beads in the bowl, having her immerse her hands into the slippery, cool, squishy texture. Enhance your little’s learning experience using some of these descriptive words to identify what they’re experiencing!
When the excitement started to dull, I added a slotted spoon, encouraging her to stir, mix, and scoop the beads. You can even set out another bowl to have your little practice transferring the beads with the spoon.
And when you tire of cleaning up those little bouncy balls, store them in a gallon-sized zip lock bag to keep a sensory bag on hand! Adding this element, made the task “fun” again now having another way to squeeze and smush the beads between her hands and under her feet!
What are we working on?
- Sensory processing: tactile sensation, put beads on a light table for enhanced visual stimulation
- Fine motor coordination: scooping, using tools, using a variety of grasp patterns to pick up the small beads
- Cognition: for older littles: count beads, identify colors, sort colors
- Language development: help your little identify what they are experiencing using descriptive words
You can buy water beads online, I found these on Amazon for a great deal from Sensory Jungle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FQTFR34/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Rainbow Ice
Here’s an easy summer activity to cool off your little one! All you do is pour some water into a ice cube tray, add a drop of food coloring, and let it freeze for a few hours.
This is a task you can modify from tiny babies to older toddlers! Caroline is 16 months old and is enjoying exploring her senses (hot and cold), learning colors with our rainbow ice, and utilizing utensils for fine motor development. Older babies may enjoy something more goal-directed. I’ve seen several posts on having older tots use a water-filled bottle to squeeze water onto the ice cubes to help melt the ice faster to retrieve a certain frozen item such as a small toy or flowers. Going this route allows your little to not only focus on a goal-oriented task – but to use those wrist and finger muscles to squeeze the bottle! Talk about a double win!
Items needed:
- Ice cube tray
- Food coloring
- Tray
- Scooping tools
What we’re working on:
- Sensory processing: introducing baby to different temperatures
- Color recognition: have your little identify colors in the ice, what colors they become as the melt together
- Fine motor strength and coordination: using a spoon to scoop and transfer ice, or a squeeze bottle to help melt the ice faster
- Cognition: Attention to task, goal-achievement
- Language development: Get them talking! Ask you little what they are experiencing, what colors do they see, etc.
Rainbow Beans
Sensory bins are always a huge hit, add a little color to your bin this week by dying some white navy beans!
What makes this bin so appealing? The colors are eye-catching, but the real win here is engaging your tot in open ended play. What can you use beans for?
- Hiding toys – have your little dig to find some buried treasure!
- Fine motor skills – Use cups and spoons to scoop, stir and pour
- Add toy cars, trucks, plastic animals and let your littles create their own unique world
- Cognition – sorting colors, counting beans, recreating designs for visual memory, tracing letters or numbers, etc
- Fine motor strength – push some beans into play-doh and have your tot dig the beans out to work on strengthening their tiny hand muscles
Here’s how to make your rainbow beans in under 10 minutes!
What you’ll need:
- White navy beans, chickpeas, or other light colored beans
- Zip-lock sandwich baggies
- Food dye
- Rubbing Alcohol
- A cookie sheet or surface to dry your beans lined with parchment paper (or I used cling wrap because that’s all I had)
Step-by-step instructions:
- Measure out your beans equally in however many colors you want to create and place them in baggies
2. Add 1-2 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol to each baggy
3. Add 10-15 drops of food dye to each baggy
4. Close and zip it. Shake until all the beans are coated evenly.
5. Lay out on a flat surface such as a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and spread into 1 layer
6. Let dry overnight
That’s it! You’ll have gorgeous colored beans you won’t want your kids to mix because they look so pretty, haha! Enjoy.
Sensory Busy Board
Wondering what to do with all those excess craft items? How about putting them all together on a sensory board! I made this little board when Caroline was around 5 or 6 months old, and she still enjoys it a year later! This board has a wide age range from tiny infants for a fun tummy time activity, up to 18+ months as a fun visual & tactile toy.
Items needed:
- Foam poster board
- Hot glue – lots of it!
- Painters tape, masking tape, or duct tape
- Whatever fun excess crafty things you have laying around: googly eyes, pipe cleaners, beads, pom poms, glitter glue, vase fillers, etc.
How to create your board:
- Cut your foam poster board to size. The above picture is about 1/6 of the board so that it’s small enough to hold
- Tape the edges with painters tape to keep the edges from falling apart
- Go crazy gluing your creation!
What does this work on?
- Sensory processing and regulation: I purposefully added not only brightly colored objects, but different textures to my board. I have things that are soft like the pom poms, smooth like the vase fillers, rough like the glitter glue, etc.
- Cognition: for older babies, talk to them about what they are feeling and seeing. Help them identify colors, count the googly eyes, identify shapes or animals, etc.
- Vision for younger infants: This can be used as a tool to stimulate visual development as well as a tool to get babies on their tummy as something to focus on and touch
Step up your play-doh game
Play-doh on it’s own is fun for all ages, but we can also provide a little bit of educational direction too! Sometimes it’s hard to put my therapist brain away when I play with my daughter, I’m always trying to sneak in some therapy tasks – haha! Here are some things you can “sneak in” as a parent the next time you get out the play-doh!
Give your little a “tool” to push through the dough
This works on upper extremity strength & grip strength needed to prepare for self feeding and dressing independence
Re-use your old sensory bin fillers!
Have your little push your sensory bin fillers through the doh, or have them dig to pick it out. This works on fine motor pinch coordination and strength.
For older littles: have them count & sort the sensory bin fillers for an added cognitive task
Milk Jug Heavy Work
We use sensory play in order to stimulate the senses needed for our bodies to respond and make appropriate actions in our environment. Sometimes, the system that regulates how we perceive our bodies in space (proprioception) doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Kiddos that have difficulty regulating this sense of proprioception, may be having sensory processing issues. And when our bodies struggle with processing input from our environment, it can make us unbalanced and trouble with coordinating movements.
Littles that are sensory seeking, are looking for ways to increase the proprioceptive input from their environment. These kids love swinging, bouncing on trampolines, etc. When they are not receiving the input they need, they can expose themselves to unsafe activities like running and crashing into walls, head banging, jumping off things.
As an safe alternative, you can use heavy work at home to help your little get the input their body is craving. Heavy work doesn’t necessarily mean “work.” Any activity that helps activate as many muscles and joints as possible at the same time will provide proprioceptive input.
Examples of “heavy work:”
- Chores such as: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, carrying the laundry basket, cooking (stirring or mixing ingredients), carrying groceries
- Outdoor play
- Indoor play: play doh, exercising in place
Here’s a simple example of heavy work with a recycled milk jug. Simply partially fill your jug with water. (I added food coloring to make it easier to see in the pictures)
Flower Power – Sensory Soup
Warmer weather is the perfect time to spend some time outdoors and soak up some vitamin D and fresh air! And with everything in bloom, now is the perfect time for an easy sensory task featuring bright colors and fragrant smells – FLOWERS!
How to set it up and what we are working on:
- Walk around your yard or neighborhood and help your toddler collect colorful flowers or leaves. To stimulate cognition and language help your little describe the flowers: what color are they? What do they smell like? How many petals does the flower have?
- To work on fine motor grasp and release have your little place the flowers in your sensory bin or container
- To work on proprioception (body’s awareness in space – see post above) help your little fill a pitcher of water and carry it to the sensory bin
- To stimulate the senses further, feel free to add some scented suds to your bin!
- Now that your bin is all set up, work on additional fine motor skills by giving your toddler some tools like a spoon, ladle, cup, etc. to let them explore the water and flowers!
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