{"id":11019,"date":"2016-02-10T13:11:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T21:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=11019"},"modified":"2023-11-08T10:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T18:28:28","slug":"sensory-play-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/games-and-activities\/sensory-play-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensory Play Activities to Get Started"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sensory play is important for all children\u2014not just individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Sensory play helps build language skills as well as fine motor and gross motor skills. Children with ASD often experience an inability to respond \u201cappropriately\u201d to sensory input, which is why they tend to have challenging behaviors or obsessions (i.e. arm flapping, avoiding eye contact, etc). Furthermore, children with ASD can have problems with social skills and speech and language skills. Most treatment options for children with ASD or with sensory dysfunction include sensory integration.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Udo n’ Pasta Face<\/a> by\u00a0Juhan Sonin<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

How Does Sensory Play Work?<\/h2>\n

Sensory play helps stimulate all senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing\u2014even balance (vestibular) and body awareness (proprioception). Sensory\u00a0play based activities help\u00a0children explore all of their senses and can get them interested in the world around them. Not only does it help to stimulate the senses, but it can also help in language stimulation. Offering your child the chance to play with different types of textures<\/strong><\/em> and objects<\/strong><\/em> can help them find new ways to talk about the world around them. Providing language stimulation in a meaningful context and creating meaningful learning opportunities is crucial for early language development. Sensory play based activities allow children to interact socially, pretend play, and expand their vocabulary. It\u2019s beneficial for all children.<\/p>\n

Get started with these\u00a03 sensory play activities<\/h3>\n

\"Sensory<\/a>Edible Sensory Play Balls<\/a> – The Mud Kitchen has a great step-by-step guide to making edible sensory balls with your child. A sticky, messy, yum-fest your child is going to love this. Really the photos alone from this activity are going to make this totally worth it. This multi-sensory play activity easy to do and yummy!<\/p>\n

This\u00a0activity focuses on: touch, smell, taste, <\/strong>and sight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gone Mudding!<\/a>\u00a0– Stir the Wonder has great ideas for inspiring learning through play. Her post on Clean mud sensory dough does not disappoint.\u00a0If your child likes to play with monster trucks or in the mud, this activity is perfect to try at home. The link also gives you a list of a few books you can read to your child before you begin the activity\u2014rev up\u00a0those imaginations!<\/p>\n

This\u00a0activity focuses on: touch, smell,<\/strong> and sight<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Jumping Lines<\/a>\u00a0– Have an active child? If so, this gross motor sensory input activity is great for those days when the weather is bad. It\u2019s also great for children with ADHD who can\u2019t sit still and need to move around.\u00a0Spoiler alert: you won’t believe\u00a0how\u00a0many clever ways there are\u00a0to arrange tape on your floor.<\/p>\n

Senses the activity focuses on: balance, body awareness <\/strong>and sight<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n \n \n \"Parents'<\/a>\n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sensory play is important for all children\u2014not just individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Sensory play helps build language skills as well as fine motor and gross motor skills. Children with ASD often experience an inability to respond \u201cappropriately\u201d to sensory input, which is why they tend to have challenging behaviors or obsessions (i.e. arm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1090,"featured_media":11081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,1538],"tags":[1633,954,1120,955,1268],"class_list":["post-11019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autism","category-games-and-activities","tag-autism-activities-at-home","tag-multisensory-stimulation","tag-sensory-integration","tag-sensory-stimulation-therapy","tag-touch-cues"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2562591188_8f52fcc1c1_o.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1090"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12307,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions\/12307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}