We hear a lot about sensory play, but what exactly is it? Why is it important? And how can you expose your 0-12 month old to it? These are all great questions, so let’s dive right in.

What is sensory play?

Sensory play is when your child’s senses are stimulated. This means that your child is engaged in an activity that stimulates sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, or proprioception. You’ve probably heard of the first five senses listed, but maybe not vestibular or proprioception. Vestibular refers to movement and understanding where your body is in space. Proprioception refers to body awareness, basically where our body parts are in relation to each other. Sensory play means that at least one of these seven senses is being stimulated and it could potentially mean all seven are stimulated at once.

Why is sensory play important?

Sensory play is important because it allows children to understand the world around them and how their actions fit into that. That’s because the brain receives information through the senses, organizes it and processes it, and then allows the child to engage with their environment. It also encourages problem solving and creativity as well as increases concentration, alertness, and curiosity.

How can I expose my 0-12 month old to sensory play?

All of that sounds great, but you might be wondering how you actually put this into practice. For newborns, sensory play is quite simple. Skin-to-skin, talking to baby, hanging a mobile above them, tummy time, and playing with baby in different positions are all ways to stimulate the senses of your newborn.

As your baby gets older, you can expose them to different textures with fabrics, grass, snow, or water. Ball play is another good way to stimulate their senses. You can roll, bounce, or drop the ball and use ones that are different textures. (Side note: Lovevery subscription boxes come with a great variety of balls and ball play activities.) Signing to your baby and playing with them in front of a mirror are other good ideas. However, my favorite sensory activity involves food.

I really loved when my babies started to eat solids. Yes, it’s messy, but it’s so. much. FUN! Touching and picking up food, tasting it, and smelling it are all great sensory activities for your baby. Food is an easy way to expose your child to different textures, and I think it’s one of the simplest ways to involve many senses at once.

Lastly, as your baby becomes mobile by crawling and then walking, their senses become even more stimulated. They can really start to feel different textures on their feet as they move. They’ll learn what they can pull up on and how to move things around. They will begin to explore more, which means they are engaging more of their senses. At this stage, sensory play almost becomes automatic. For more ideas on ways you can create different sensory play activities, check out my Pinterest and Instagram.

I hope this information was helpful to you. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or need assistance creating educational spaces for your babe to thrive.

Happy day y’all!