Fun Sensory Games and Activities to Boost Your 0-12 months Baby’s Development
Children Learn Through Sensory Play
Children learn about their surroundings and the world through sensory play from the moment they are born.
Sensory play can involve activities such as exploring different textures, playing with water or sand, or even engaging in imaginative play with various objects. These experiences not only provide entertainment and fun for children but also contribute to their cognitive, physical, and emotional development. By engaging in sensory play, children develop their problem-solving skills, creativity, and ability to focus and concentrate on tasks.
They learn to differentiate between textures, colors, and shapes through sensory play. This knowledge helps them make connections and understand the world around them better. Additionally, sensory activities promote curiosity and exploration, encouraging children to engage in independent learning and develop a sense of wonder about their environment.
In this blog article, we’ll cover all seven senses by recommending some of our favorite sensory games and activities to enhance your infant’s and toddler’s development. We’ll also go over the benefits of each exercise in terms of sensory growth and development.
How Many Senses Are There, Exactly?
There are commonly believed to be five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. However, some experts argue that there are actually seven senses, including body awareness (the sense of body position and movement) and balancing (the sense of balance and spatial orientation). These additional senses play a crucial role in a child’s overall sensory development.
Some of us may have been taken aback when we learned that children need to cultivate not just the five senses we were taught about in school, but all seven, for their own long-term health and happiness. For example:
- Sense of Sight: The ability to perceive and interpret visual stimuli is essential for a child’s learning and understanding of the world around them. It allows them to recognize faces, read, and understand colors, shapes, letters, words, numbers, body language, and other environmental cues, helping them navigate their environment with ease.
- Sense of Smell: Recognizing and identifying different foods, plants, or materials in the environment is crucial.
- Sense of Hearing: The sense of sound enables children to communicate, listen to music, and develop language skills. It also helps them detect potential dangers and be aware of their surroundings by recognizing sounds in the environment, understanding their meanings, and learning how to respond.
- Sense of Touch: Children learn to distinguish between items that are safe to touch and those that are not, as well as recognize various textures and objects by their shape and material.
- Sense of Taste: Children rely on their sense of taste to explore different flavors, determine what is safe to eat, and identify different tastes and the foods they belong to.
- Balancing: They learn to adjust their body position and make quick reflexes to maintain equilibrium and avoid accidents. Additionally, children develop their sense of balance by practicing activities such as walking on uneven surfaces, riding a bike, or participating in sports that require coordination and stability.
- Body Awareness: This can be achieved through activities that challenge proprioception, such as gymnastics, where children learn to understand their body’s position and movements. Developing body awareness also helps children improve their coordination and spatial awareness, which are important for activities like dancing or playing team sports.
With these seven senses in mind, let us explore different sensory activities that parents can use to encourage learning through sensory exploration and play.
✨Smiling Faces
Babies are naturally drawn to smiling faces, which aids in their sensory development. Smiling faces provide visual stimulation and help in the recognition of emotions and the development of social ties in babies. It is critical for parents and caregivers to connect with their babies face to face, smiling and making eye contact, since this fosters the proper development of their visual senses.
Furthermore, filling the baby’s environment with photos or toys with happy faces helps improve their sensory experience. Bring out family photo albums and show your infant photographs of happy people. Make a point of pointing to the faces in each picture so your toddler notices the smiles. If you have family photos on your walls at home, gaze at them with your child. Smiles signify a loving response that helps your child feel safe and secure in the world before they are old enough to grasp words. Learning to notice smiles in their surroundings helps children establish a sense of security and belonging while also improving their visual skills.
Sensory Development: Sense of sight ✔️
✨Tummy Time
To practice tummy time, lay your infant on a soft blanket or play mat, on their stomach. Place a mirror, toy, or other objects in front of them so they can reach out and touch.
This activity helps strengthen their neck and shoulder muscles, as well as their visual and motor skills. It also provides a different perspective of their surroundings, promoting sensory exploration and cognitive development.
‼️ Tummy time is an essential activity for infants as it helps them develop their muscles and motor skills. You can enhance their tummy time experience by incorporating different textures and toys. Use a textured blanket or mat to provide tactile stimulation while placing colorful toys within their reach to encourage visual tracking and reaching.
Sensory Development: Touching, seeing, body awareness.
✨Musical Toys
As your baby learns to move their muscles, hear sounds, and feel touch, simple musical toys can spark an interest in music.
Listening to music helps kids develop their sense of hearing, but playing a toy instrument helps a child develop agency, release pent-up energy, and build their creative skills.
‼️ Learning to play with different instruments like a xylophone or baby guitar helps develop coordination and sense of touch.
Sensory Development: Touching, listening.
✨Hanging Mobile
A hanging mobile is a great sensory activity for infants as it provides visual stimulation and encourages them to track the movement of the objects. It also helps in developing their visual tracking skills and hand-eye coordination. A hanging mobile provides a bit of color, motion, and reflection in their environment that stimulates the eyes and mind.
Tip: If you have mom friends with infants around the same age, you can swap hanging mobiles every few months. This exposes the baby to a variety of colors, shapes, and patterns, which can help with cognitive development.
Interacting with the hanging mobile together can also create a bonding experience for both the parent and the infant, developing a sense of security and trust.
Sensory Development: Seeing ✔️
✨Singing Songs
Singing with your child offers a range of sensory development and cognitive benefits. Kids develop their listening skills by hearing you sing and trying to mimic. They also learn concepts like tone and rhythm and develop their language skills. Music and exercise together engage their auditory and visual senses, encouraging cognitive growth.
‼️ Singing songs with actions can enhance their fine motor skills as they try to mimic the movements associated with the lyrics. Singing songs together with your child can help them develop listening skills from an early age.
Sensory Development: Listening, seeing, and body awareness.
✨Sensory Bottle
Sensory bottles are a great tool for infants to explore their sense of sight and body awareness. As they manipulate the bottle, they can observe the different materials inside and develop their visual tracking skills. Additionally, the sensory bottle provides an opportunity for infants to practice their hand-eye coordination as they grasp and shake the bottle.
Sensory bottles can provide diverse sensory experiences for kids based on what you choose to put inside. Marbles, sequins, and glitter mixed with water provide a sparkly effect like a snow globe that’s visually stimulating.
Kids play with the sensory bottle by holding, turning, and shaking it. To make a sensory bottle, take an empty water bottle and fill it with materials of your choice, then use non-toxic glue to secure the cap and prevent spills.
Sensory Development: Seeing, touching, and body awareness.
✨Mirror Games
Infants are in the process of developing self-awareness and learning more about their environments. Mirror games can help infants develop their visual skills. As they get older, play by asking them to point to their eyes, ears, or nose, or practice making funny faces.
Mirror games are a great way to enhance your child’s sensory development as they engage their visual and body awareness. By seeing their own face or body in the mirror, they can explore and interact with their reflection, helping them understand the concept of self-identity.
‼️ This activity also promotes cognitive development as they make connections between their actions and the movements they see in the mirror.
Sensory Development: Seeing, body awareness.
✨Texture Board
A simple texture board with different materials can provide diverse sensory stimulation as infants develop their sense of touch. The texture board can be made by attaching materials such as fur, sandpaper, and bubble wrap to a board. As infants explore the different textures, they can enhance their tactile perception and develop a better understanding of different materials. This sensory experience can help them build important connections in their brain and improve their overall sensory development.
Kids learn about their environments through the five senses – especially touch. New textures are exciting for infants who have never experienced them before. Experiment with different materials for your texture board, including cotton balls, tin foil, felt paper, string, beads, rocks, shells, leaves, buttons, sponges, and wood.
Sensory Development: Touching.
✨Sponges and Water
A small tray with water and a few sponges makes a fun sensory activity for your infant child.
Sensory activities for infants need to be fun, safe, and simple – especially at the age where kids learn by putting things in their mouths.
‼️ Sponges and water tick all the boxes here – your baby can splash in the water, practice picking up and squeezing sponges, and have fun getting wet as they develop their body awareness, object exploration skills, and sense of touch.
Sensory Development: Touching, body awareness.
✨Ice Cubes in a Bowl
A handful of ice cubes in a baby-safe bowl with some water is a simple and fun activity with plenty of opportunities for sensory development and early learning.
Your infant can have fun splashing in the water, develop their fine motor skills by grasping slippery ice cubes, and feel the difference between warm and cool temperatures.
‼️ As kids get older, they can learn about phase changes (melting and freezing), floating and sinking objects, air bubbles in the water, and more. Kids love doing sensory activities with ice and water, and parents love the low cost, minimal clean-up requirements, and rich learning opportunities these materials can provide.
Sensory Development: Seeing, touching.
✨Musical Toys
As your baby learns to move their muscles, hear sounds, and feel touch, simple musical toys can spark an interest in music.
Listening to music helps kids develop their sense of hearing, but playing a toy instrument helps a child develop agency, release pent-up energy, and build their creative skills.
‼️ Learning to play with different instruments like a xylophone or baby guitar helps develop coordination and sense of touch.
Sensory Development: Touching, listening.
✨Messy Play – Playing with Liquid Paint
This sensory game can be messy but is worth the clean-up time because of its benefits for children’s development.
Mix a little liquid food coloring into safe, baby-friendly paint and let your baby go crazy! Let them splash in the paint with their hands, or add some toys they can use to draw on paper. This activity will engage their tactile senses, visual senses, and creativity as they explore and experiment with different colors and textures. The messy play also helps them develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they manipulate the paint and create their artwork. Plus, it’s a fun and enjoyable activity that allows them to express themselves and have fun.
‼️ Keep some baby wipes or a wash basin handy for when they’re done! Get creative and make it an outdoor activity to enjoy some sunshine while exploring their artistic side.
Sensory Development: Touching, seeing, body awareness.
✨Play Mat
A colorful play mat with different textures and objects can provide sensory stimulation and entertainment for infants. The various textures help develop their sense of touch while the colors and patterns stimulate their visual senses.
Many play mats come with built-in toys or attachments that produce sounds when touched, enhancing auditory sensory experiences. They can reach, grasp, and interact with the objects on the mat, which promotes hand-eye coordination and motor skills development. Additionally, play mats often include mirrors or reflective surfaces that allow infants to explore their own reflections, enhancing their sense of self-awareness and cognitive development.
Sensory Development: Seeing, touching, body awareness.
Sources:
PBS Parents. (n.d.). Freeze Dance Activity for Kids. Retrieved from PBS.org
How many senses do humans have? Science Focus
The Importance of Sensory Play. Pathways.org
American Academy of Pediatrics. (n.d.). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. Retrieved from AAP.org
Scholastic. (n.d.). Benefits of Finger Painting for Preschoolers. Retrieved from Scholastic.com
PBS Parents. (n.d.). Learning Letters with Salt Trays. Retrieved from PBS.org
Zero to Three. (n.d.). The Magic of Everyday Moments: How Babies Learn Smells. Retrieved from ZeroToThree.org
Parents. (n.d.). Simple Balance Activities for Toddlers. Retrieved from Parents.com
NAEYC. (n.d.). Promoting Balance and Coordination in Toddlers. Retrieved from NAEYC.org
Child Development Institute. (n.d.). The Importance of Sensory Play. Retrieved from ChildDevelopmentInstitute.com
Scholastic. (n.d.). Why Sensory Play Is Important. Retrieved from Scholastic.com
The Bump. (n.d.). What Is a Sensory Table? Retrieved from TheBump.com
NAEYC. (n.d.). Play-Based Learning Activities. Retrieved from NAEYC.org
Healthline. (2019). Games for Kids: Simon Says. Retrieved from Healthline.com
Food Network. (n.d.). Benefits of Cooking with Kids. Retrieved from FoodNetwork.com
The Spruce Eats. (2020). How Cooking With Kids Helps Their Development. Retrieved from TheSpruceEats.com
PBS Parents. (n.d.). Mystery Bag Activity for Toddlers. Retrieved from PBS.org
Você pode gostar
