So nurseries and reception classes are usually full of sensory play opportunities but after that they seem to vanish completely in favour of activities that are deemed more ‘educational’.
With my son having experienced school attendance difficulties for many years and now being educated at home I am seeing learning through a different lens entirely. Just some of the benefits of sensory play for older children include:
⭐️ Sensory regulation or brain breaks
⭐️ Time to be side by side with your child and
chat with the pressure off
⭐️ Time to practice co-regulation with your
child
⭐️ Helps with emotional regulation by giving a
calming effect
⭐️ Continues to help develop fine motor skills
⭐️ Encourages creativity and self expression
Oftentimes if I ask my son if he wants to do an activity, whatever it may be, I am met with a firm ‘no’ but by having a sensory tray available and maybe playing with it myself to start with, he will usually join in. I am then led by him with how we play with the items and we have a lot of fun. This kind of positive interaction often leads to him asking to do other activities that he otherwise wouldn’t have agreed to do. If it doesn’t, then that’s okay too, we have spent some quality time together and strengthened our relationship.
I often base the trays on a theme such as this one, Halloween obviously, which led to discussions about how the glow in the dark spiders work and how UV light charges them to make them glow, the origins of Halloween and why it seems to be so popular today and why the colour orange represents Halloween.
No learning happening here! 😂 🎃 🤔
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