Sensory play is one of the most popular parent-child activities and there’s a good reason why. For one, sensory activities can help toddlers in several ways – among which is to support their cognitive growth and language development.
As a parent or guardian to a toddler, you are aiming to do everything to help them thrive and develop. Fortunately, there are now numerous sensory toys that choosing one based on your toddler’s preferences is easy.
How Sensory Play Can Improve Your Child’s Cognitive and Motor Skills?
In general, sensory play revolves around doing hands-on activities that encourage your child to explore using their senses, specifically the senses of sight, taste, sound, smell, and touch. The activities here also involve the use of balance and movement.
Most sensory activities are unstructured, providing kids the chance to play based on their own unique pace. Sensory activities for toddlers also require them to get more involved in the process. Some examples would be creating mud pies outdoors, familiarizing themselves with the contents of a rice bin, and playing with water tables.
Through sensory stimulation, your toddler will be able to familiarize themselves with the world and environment surrounding them. Once sensory play develops into activities that are more hands-on, it will begin to play a crucial role in honing your child’s cognitive skills, especially those linked to abstract thinking and problem-solving.
As they receive motor and visual stimulation at such an early age, you will notice a major improvement in the development of their math and language skills in the future. Sensory play also gives your toddler the opportunity and freedom to get messy and explore. This is good as it also encourages them to turn into stronger learners.
As your toddler gains the chance to play based on their preference and pace, it is highly likely for them to build persistence and curiosity along the process. These two qualities are vital as they grow older, especially once they go to school and eventually, work.
Benefits of Sensory Toys for Toddlers
Sensory play provides benefits to toddlers that are more than what day care can provide. Parents can actually take advantage of sensory activities, so their kids at home can explore using their senses.
The good news is that you don’t need to expose your child to fancy and expensive sensory activities. Yes, it usually requires your child to get messy but you can reduce that possibility indoors with the help of sensory tubs and tables.
Overall, your toddler will receive the most benefits from this type of fun and stimulating play as it can do the following:
Enhances fine and gross motor skills
All motor skills refer to predetermined actions revolving around the movement of your toddler. With the help of sensory play, you can stimulate your toddler’s desire to move and take part in the activity. In most cases, this requires them to use repetitive movements that are effective in gaining better fine and gross motor skills.
Boosts language development through interactive play
Sensory activities are also often interactive, making them effective in supporting language development. Your toddler’s senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing are all effective means for kids to learn the basics of thinking, comparing, and feeling the environment as well as the objects inside it.
By letting them use several senses at one, their language development and learning process will be immediately stimulated. It will also be of help in learning how to use descriptive words.
Fosters creativity and problem-solving activities
It is also possible for various sensory play and activities to enhance your toddler’s creativity. It promotes exploration and better problem-solving skills. In most cases, sensory activities need to be engaging and interesting for your toddler all the time.
This is the reason why such activities can also harness their creative skills. An example of a situation where you can give them a new and engaging experience is by adding something different to their bathtime.
It could be as simple as using another washcloth so they will be more familiar with another texture. You may also show them what a splash is. In addition, you should take note that most toddlers are fond of squishing, pulling, tapping, stirring, pouring, transporting, sniffing, and rubbing, among many other interactive activities.
They also love to create patterns and engage themselves in role playing activities. All these activities can help them explore, solve problems, and use their creative juices.
3 Recommended Sensory Toys for Toddlers
If you have a toddler around one to three years old, then you will surely be delighted to know that your choices for sensory toys are limitless. The following are just three of those sensory toys that many toddlers value.
Stacking Blocks with Textures
A toy designed to give your toddler better hand-eye coordination and let them experience tactile exploration is a set of stacking blocks. This is a great choice for toddlers as it is at this particular age when their fondness for stacking and toppling blocks is at an all-time high.
This fun and exciting activity for toddlers does not have any limits to discovery and exploration. Another advantage of stacking blocks is that they let you integrate new materials and textures into the activity, which is a huge help in building their math skills and overall creativity.
This toy also requires you to explore new shapes and colors. What’s also great about these toys is that they are not as costly as the others. It is simple, allowing open-ended play while offering help in mastering new skills based on their own pace.
Despite being simple toys, these stacking blocks can also give your toddler several developmental benefits. These are effective in honing and polishing your child’s hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. In addition, the blocks provide you with the opportunity to keep on interacting with your toddler through play.
Colorful Sorting Toy
Choose to invest in a colorful sorting toy for your toddler, especially if you want their cognitive system to develop well. It also promotes visual discrimination. Note that one cognitive skill that your child may learn around his second year of life is identifying and detecting colors.
Kids learn colors beginning at eighteen months old. Sorting and matching colors are the easiest ways for them to learn these things. Eventually, they can choose colors depending on what is asked.
They will also learn how to name colors soon enough. This is something that the colorful sorting toy can help with. It gives your child a kind of activity that lets them match and sort colors. It is possible to use any set of toys that let you sort, like blocks.
Ensure that they come in various colors. It would be best to invest in these toys as your child will surely have a fun experience creating and building using blocks. This helps a lot in polishing their creative skills.
Musical Instruments Set
A musical instrument set is also a nice investment for your toddler’s sensory play. It promotes better rhythm exploration and auditory stimulation. If you feel like he is prepared to level up his use of real instruments, such as a guitar or a drum, you can give them an actual set of musical instruments.
The best one out there is that which can support their development not only as far as musical skills are concerned but also their social-emotional and fine motor skills. It should be noted that children are naturally born to get entertained and relaxed by music.
By exposing your toddler to music and rhythm, you also get to broaden their sensory environment. This is especially true if they start making their own music or rhythm, too. Simple musical toys are also enough to provide your toddler with a good educational experience that will enhance exploration and creativity.
Conclusion
By introducing your toddler to sensory play, you give themselves the chance to grow into someone who is truly capable and resourceful. The good thing about sensory activities is that they support excellent learning through creativity, exploration, self-examination, enthusiasm, and curiosity – all of which are vital for your toddler’s growth.