The term “sensory activities for babies” is slowly taking over the world and you could be mistaken if you think this is another social media sensation that won’t stand the test of time because many researchers have delved deep into the study of sensory activities for babies and they’ve realized it is a fun way to help children with brain development, vocabulary growth, problem-solving skills and more.
You will discover the advantages that lie in allowing your babies to thrive and grow in a condition where they can participate in sensory activities.
But first, what is sensory play? Sensory play (activities) do not have a specific definition but according to what these activities seek to achieve, it includes any activity that stimulates a baby’s sense of taste, sight, touch, smell, or hearing. The idea is to encourage little ones to use their senses to play, create, investigate and explore. Sensory play can be an early, but important step in the development process.
Here are the advantages of sensory activities for babies:
- Better learning and information retention: babies learn faster and more effectively when they are immersed in the activities, by learning more effectively they get to retain the information better too.
- For babies with special needs, sensory play is a great way for them to bond and feel among their peers. Since there is no fixed way of going about sensory play, one that suits the special needs of such babies can be developed to advance their inclusion with their peers.
- Sensory play improves brain development: at a tender age the brain is still at its earliest growth stage so if it is engaged in sensory activities, it makes nerve connections, therefore, leading to cognitive growth and development, improved independent thinking and problem-solving.
- Sensory play helps improve language development: since sensory plays require the active participation of the kids, they’ll tend to describe what they experienced if their parents asked them and hence this helps them with language.
- Improves fine motor skills: Sensory plays involve the use of smaller muscles in the body through activities like scooping, pinching etc thereby causing improved coordination and fine motor skills.
- It helps in calming and balancing emotions: Kids who are ruffled become calm when they engage in sensory plays as they get immersed in the activities. This promotes mindfulness and increases concentration power in kids.
- Sensory play is fun: sensory plays are fun and a good distraction for kids to allow their mothers to focus on other pressing assignments that need to be done.
- It encourages critical thinking and problem solving: some forms of sensory play require kids to formulate strategies, test assumptions, experiment with various possibilities before they achieve the goal of the sensory play. Indirectly, the kids are learning problem-solving skills which will be critical to their success later on in life.
- Helps kids build an interest in learning: sensory plays mixed with learning is perfect for sparking kids interest in learning as it is more fun than the traditional form of learning.
