The Power of Early Years Sensory Play
By inviting children to explore the world with all of their senses, we can support countless areas of learning and development, explains Claire Martin…
Through play our children learn to make sense of the world around them – they are naturally curious and engage all of their senses as they explore their environment. This is why you will always observe young children banging, tasting, pushing, pulling and inspecting their toys.
They are naturally very tactile learners and when they explore different objects and materials they are engaging their senses to help develop important neurological connections in their brains.
The period from birth to five years is when children’s brains grow the fastest. They are constantly learning and developing neural connections, and it’s these connections that enable them to learn effectively in later life.
If children aren’t making and using these connections regularly, then they can lose them. This is why sensory play is vital for young children’s development.
Which senses?
When discussing our senses, everyone thinks of the ‘big five’: touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell.
Whilst these five senses play an incredibly important role in developing children’s brains, there are others that it’s crucial to nurture too.
They are the sense of balance and movement, also known as the vestibular system, and the sense of their body position, known as proprioception.
The vestibular system is linked with a child’s ability to balance and coordinate their movements. It is vital for children to be able to walk and run and avoid obstacles.
Proprioception is linked to a child’s sense of their body in relation to their surroundings. It is the ability to know where your body is and being able to move your arms and legs without looking at them.
It is through combining and developing all of these senses that young children are able to learn, socialise, play effectively and build and maintain those important neurological connections.
Supporting development
The early years practitioner’s role as a facilitator of learning is to provide ample opportunity for young children to learn, explore and develop their senses.
It’s through sensory-rich experiences that we can ensure children’s brains make connections, thus enhancing their physical and cognitive development in a wide range of areas, for example
- Mathematics
- Fine/gross motor skills
- Hand-eye coordination
- Science – observing, predicting and drawing conclusions
- Social skills
- Speaking and listening
- Working collaboratively
Our favorite sensory play ideas
The toddlers at the British International School of Boston love participating in all kinds of sensory, messy play. We believe in the phrase ‘the messier, the better’! Children shouldn’t be limited in their play, learning and exploration because of adults’ aversion to, and misconceptions of, dirt and gloop.
Baking soda & vinegar Mixing baking soda and vinegar together creates a reaction that young children love to watch. Through this kind of activity, they are able to develop their sense of smell, touch and hearing.
It’s also a fantastic way to encourage children to predict and observe as well as develop their speaking and listening skills. It is always great to observe children participating in this kind of play and witness the sense of wonder on their faces.
Some of our favorite activities involving baking soda and vinegar include
- Mixing baking soda with powder paints to create rainbow explosions.
- Freezing a mixture of baking soda and water in different molds, such as ice cubes, different shapes or fruit molds.
- Hiding a few drops of food colouring under a spoonful of baking soda. Children will be amazed at the magically appearing colours when they add vinegar.
- Mixing baking soda into mud in the mud kitchen to create exploding mud pies.
We normally add vinegar into ketchup/mustard bottles or squirty bottles, so the vinegar and the reactions last a little longer.
Please note: as with any type of play, safety considerations must be taken into account. Baking soda and vinegar can be harmful to eyes, or if ingested. We allow our children, who are aged from 18 months to three years, to get hands on with the materials, but there is always an adult on-hand to supervise. As they play, we chat to the children about what they are doing and how to stay safe, and support them with not tasting anything and ensuring they wash their hands when they are finished.
Cloud dough Cloud dough is easy to make and very versatile. It provides children with the opportunity to explore their sense of touch as well as smell.
Providing children with a variety of malleable materials enables them to develop all of their senses. Adding different smelling extracts obviously helps to develop their sense of smell, and different-sized scoops and pots it can help to develop their hand-eye coordination.
Jelly Whilst extremely messy, jelly (or jello, as we call it in Boston) is a firm favorite for young children to play with! They love exploring the texture and taste. There are many ways to incorporate jelly into children’s play. Hiding objects inside for children to find helps develop investigating and problem-solving skills. Allowing children to explore the jelly with their hands or scoops aids their hand-eye coordination. Older children can also use child scissors to practise their cutting skills.
Cooking It can be difficult to encourage children to develop their sense of taste whilst maintaining hygiene and limiting cross-contamination. Cooking with children is a fantastic way of developing not only children’s sense of taste but also other senses. Talking to children about the feel or smell of fruit or dough can help to develop important neurological connections. Children are usually most engaged in the cooking process when they feel they are in control. They are also more likely to try new foods if they feel a sense of ownership over the cooking.
Using basic kitchen tools, under appropriate supervision, also helps children to develop a sense of independence, hand-eye coordination and sense of achievement.
Extra resources for sensory play
- Objects hidden in ice
- Mud kitchens
- Colourful rice and pasta
- Slime
- Spaghetti
- Water
- Shaving foam
- ‘Sand foam’ (sand and shaving foam mixed together)
- Sensory bottles or bags
- Musical instruments, both inside and outside
- Nature – take a walk and play in muddy puddles and leaves!
Developing the vestibular system
There are many ways practitioners can develop their children’s vestibular system. Providing different obstacle courses and access to age-appropriate climbing structures is beneficial in developing children’s sense of balance and coordination.
Taking children on walks on different surfaces, such as concrete, grass, sand and hills also benefits their physical development. Providing children with the opportunity to move in different ways in their environment again helps to develop their sense of balance.
The children in our setting love the challenge of using the pedal bikes and scooters and will often create different obstacle courses to complete using crates, balance beams and tunnels.
Developing proprioception
Encouraging children to explore moving in different ways helps them to improve their sense and awareness of their bodies in relation to the world around them. In order to develop those crucial neural pathways, children need to have ample opportunity to move in different ways.
Encouraging children to push heavy tyres around a bike track or pull buckets of water around the garden are good ways to develop children’s physical abilities. Our children love using the pulley system set up in our tree to move buckets up and down. They also enjoy blowing bubbles and doing yoga!
Whole-body exploration
Children engage with sensory play with their whole body, so it’s important for practitioners to be aware that children don’t just want to explore using their hands.
Allowing children to experience textures and sensations with their feet, for example, can be hugely beneficial to overall development.
Allowing children to play outside barefoot in the grass, or explore standing on rice or pasta in a tuff tray, or paint their feet can help them to develop their senses in a holistic way.
Whilst sensory play can be messy and hard to manage in a class setting, it’s important for practitioners and parents to remember how vital it is for young children. Always ensure children have spare clothes or aprons available and remember that children are 100% washable!
Additional reading
- Planning in the Moment with Young Children, Anna Ephgrave, 2018
- Balanced and Barefoot, Angela J Hanscom, 2016 (Read Angela’s article on taking infants out into the fresh air)
- Every Child a Mover, Jan White, 2015
- Sensory Play (play in the EYFS), Sue Gascoyne, 2013
Claire Martin is an early years teacher at the British International School of Boston (@BISBEarlyYears). Follow her on Twitter at @Clairemartin157.
