The Benefits of Sensory Play for Kids: How Sensory Play Helps Children Thrive!

Ready to embrace sensory play? We’re here to sing its praises and give you an insight into just a few of the ways it can help your child thrive.

While it might not seem that deep, the benefits of sensory play are wonderfully diverse. It’s a fun approach to downtime that can help your little one develop in all kinds of magical ways (which we hope you’ll remember the next time you’re cleaning up jelly from the kitchen floor... deep breaths).

At its core sensory play is fun, and sometimes more than a little chaotic, but it’s also an extremely useful tool for learning. It allows children to explore through their senses, which actively develops cognitive ability (aka their thinking skills).

Sensory play for babies and toddlers is sometimes known as messy play. Before you write it off for crimes against a clean home, we’ll plead its case. Let’s start with the fact that 90% of a child’s brain develops before they’re five, so the early years are a crucial time to get stuck into some serious playtime. Cool, right?

What is sensory play and why is it important?  

In short, sensory play is any activity that children can be involved in using their five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight.

Sensory play is super important for kids’ growth. It helps them learn in amazing ways, like telling different sounds apart or saying what they like by tasting things. And the best part? Kids don’t even realize they’re learning while they play.

It’s not only little ones that playing sensory games will benefit. One study shows that when parents carve out time to play, it makes them feel good too. That’s what you call a win-win.

Sensory play for toddlers: five types of games to get your sensory journey started

1. Touch

Just as with children, you shouldn’t have favorites, but squashing things is a pretty good place to start on the sensory play scale. Who doesn’t like to squelch things between their fingers?

Some of our favorite sensory touch activities include building sandcastles, shaping playdough, water games, mud pie-making, finger painting or even making a sensory bin. All you have to do is fill a container with a textured non-toxic material, like rice or jelly, and add in some toys for them to pull out and explore. Fun!

If your child is old enough to understand instructions, try guided play. Offer open-ended prompts like ‘can you draw a shape in the sand with your finger?’ This kind of gentle interaction has shown to be a super effective way of encouraging development.

In terms of learning, children discovering their surroundings through touch are taught to foster curiosity and creativity, as well as embrace trial-and-error to foster resilience. Soon they’ll be squeezing and squelching anything they can get their hands on!

2. Taste

If there’s one thing we know about toddlers, it’s that they think everything is edible. Gently steer them in the right direction with taste-first sensory activities. These help to keep them curious about new flavors and experiences, and with some interaction from you they can stretch their language skills too through labeling of tastes like ‘sweet’ or ‘sour’.

For older kids, taste-based sensory play might include baking, where they’re licking icing off a spoon, while younger children might enjoy a mixed-fruit plate so that they can try everything from crunchy apple slices to sharp pineapple pieces. Yum!

While they’re trying different flavors it’s a good opportunity to ask them what they like and don’t like. This one’s all about helping your child to understand their preferences, and how to communicate those to you (even if it’s disappointing to discover that jam has won over broccoli, yet again).

3. Smell

A lot of the time, sensory play combines senses. Smell can often be used as an additional element in games. Take washing your hands, where children will experience the feeling of water, the smell of soap and seeing the bubbles all at once.

Other simple sensory games for the smell include filling bottles with cotton wool and adding scents like lavender oil, ground cinnamon or lemon juice before letting your little one loose on sniffing them. For babies you can simply have fun with them as they react, whereas for older kids you can broaden the learning potential by adding instructions. This might be creating cards that list the smells (in words or pictures!) that they must then pair with the right bottle.

If you’re outside, try gathering leaves and flowers to make ‘potions’ and ‘perfumes’. Chat to them about how each concoction smells to encourage active exploration where they’ll learn the characteristics of different properties.

4. Hearing

If you can’t hack the full brass band experience, then fear not, sound-based sensory games can start small. Think the crunch of leaves under wellies or the sprinkle of a hose in the garden.

If you want to make things more deliberate, then why not create a fun, easy game? This one can be played anywhere and requires no equipment whatsoever. AKA, it’s a lifesaver in all kinds of scenarios. From when they’re very young, most children can mimic sounds. Try naming animals and asking them what sound a pig, lion or monkey makes. If they’re struggling, you can try visual prompts, like using LEGO® DUPLO® animals to show them what you mean. To make things trickier as they get older, you can reverse roles, with you making the sounds and them labeling the animal.

This skill can help with reading and writing later. If a child can tell the difference between a drum and a triangle (or a pig and a lion!), they can learn to hear syllables, rhymes and separate words more easily.

For a fab activity that will make a whole host of different noises (zips unzipping, locks unlocking, bricks – um… unbricking), create your own busy board using a mix of LEGO DUPLO bricks and other materials.

5. Sight

Kids learn fast through mimicking, and seeing things in action allows little ones to make sense of the world around them.

If you’re happy to make a mess, try color-mixing paints. This will help them use their problem-solving skills as they work out which paints mix successfully, and which don’t. For something a little less messy, try color sorting. Grab some LEGO DUPLO bricks, mix them up, and then ask your little one to separate them into groups. Or try our Walking and Gathering Activity for 1+-Year-Olds and sprinkle LEGO DUPLO bricks around your home or garden for your child to collect.

Aside from the fact that neatly categorized bricks are extremely satisfying, your child will be kick-starting their math and problem-solving skills. Sorting by sight using colors, shapes, sizes or textures form a solid foundation for logical thinking later on.