When a baby comes into the world, they experience their parents, their family, through touch. They can’t yet see clearly, but they hear everything and they can smell things. Their first impression of their family’s love is in how they are held, how they are caressed, how they are patted to sleep. All this to say that when a baby comes into the world, they don’t understand the world around them a lot, but their senses help them process everything, understand everything, form experiences, form memories.
For babies, their senses are their first step to understand anything new, the first step to learning about their world.
So you’ll see when a baby comes across anything new, their first instinct is to taste it. That’s how in tune a baby is with their senses, and that’s exactly why sensory stimulation is something children not only enjoy but it’s a big part of their brain development and learning journey. Their sensory experiences help a child form neural connections and shape early learning.
And hence, sensory activities and experiences play a big role in every child’s early years!
So what is sensory play?
Sensory play includes activities that engage a child’s senses like beating a drum or ringing a bell to engage their hearing, or exploring textures like slime or bubbles to experience touch. These activities are a great way of introducing a child to the world around them while engaging multiple senses at once!
And yes, it’s messy, but it makes childhood so much fun that you won’t regret it!
Here are some more more reasons to make sensory activities a part of your little one’s life:
Brain Development
Like I said, a child’s sensory experiences help them form neural pathways, enhancing cognitive skills over time.
Fine and Gross Motor Skills
Everything your child does in their initial couple years, from trying to hold a book to learning to walk, everything makes their muscles a little bit strange everyday. Sensory activities can only help enhance their muscle growth because when your baby is exploring a new texture, he are likely to scoop it, or squish it. Their attempt to mold this texture in their little hands improves their hand muscles. Further, trying to crawl to a tray or balance themselves on a textured surface develops gross motor coordination.
Emotional Regulation
Sensory play is a very soothing activity for most babies. It has meditative effects on most, acting as a very good distraction tool when they are on the way to or in the middle of a meltdown. You’ll find your child engaged in these activities for hours on end, all they need is several transferring utensils.
Creativity and curiosity
Sensory play is an open-ended activity which inspires imagination and experimentation in your participants. It also helps them understand cause and effect, they realize what happens when they squeeze slime vs what happens when they squeeze play dough. All these observations become a part of their experience.
Language and Social skills
Sensory play is sure to invite questions and communication and this leads to them picking up new words to describe what they are experiencing, enhancing their vocabulary as well as comprehension skills. Also it’s a great activity for initiating peer interaction since it encourages cooperation, sharing, turn-taking when done together. Thus promoting collaboration.
Pre-writing and pre-math skills
Okay, I strongly believe that sensory play is a big step before you send your child to school, because of all of the above reasons. Because it improves muscle development as well as memory in such a fun way, sensory play is a crucial step before you give your child a crayon or pencil.
You can get started on a sensory journey with your child as early as 6 months, as soon as they start sitting without support. And we have some very well designed and well thought-out products to help you in this journey!
Presenting, the House of Zizi, sensory essentials:
Sensory Tray
The House of Zizi Sensory Tray is a great sorting tool, with 6 small trays that fit into a large one, allowing your child to explore colours, shapes, sizes and understand these concepts with a more tactile approach. It’s an easy to clean and maintain tool that can be a great help to the parent who wants controlled mess and for the child who likes to keep their little hands busy.
Sensory Table
Another great investment, something that can go a long way! Made with Mango-wood, this table offers two compartments/sensory bins for containing and organizing different textures. Again it offers scope for sorting, hand-on exploring and learning the fun way!
Sandpit
This is such a wonderful product, a little haven for your child’s imagination to grow. The House of Zizi Sandpit is a star product that your child will play in and on for years! It’s a product your child can grow with and it;s a product with a big scope for versatility. From building sand castles, to hiding and digging treasure, to tracing letters and shapes in sand, there’s so much that can be done with this one product!
So start your child’s sensory journey now and make their experience of the world more intentional, more thorough!