Importance of Sensory Play
Sensory play involves many senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
These are some ways it helps our children:
Boosts Cognitive Development - sensory experiences stimulate curiosity and exploration. Working with different textures and shapes, kids learn about similarities and differences. There are types of exploration that help them sharpen problem-solving skills. Sensory spurs imaginative play which assists in abstract thinking and academic achievement.
Develops Motor Skills - Strategically designed sensory activities improve fine motor skills, such as handwriting. Gross motor skills include running, maintaining balance, and navigating stairs. Hand-eye coordination is a great example of how the brain uses visual stimuli to move a body part to where it needs to be to complete a task.
Builds Speech and Language Skills - When sensory play activities help children make new discoveries, they talk about it! As they share experiences, they practice communication skills.
Encourages Social Interaction - The improvements in language skills have a positive impact on social skills. They learn to take turns, to be empathetic, and learn about the likes and dislikes of others. These experiences help kids to practice positive social interactions before they get into the world of adolescence, employment, and adulthood.
Improves Emotional Development - Social interaction, cognition, communication skills, all of these abilities lead to positive emotional development.
Develop a Sense of Self - Experiences inform children about their strengths, challenges and how they can positively fit into the world in which we live. This results in self-awareness and self-esteem.
This is why I started Mariah’s Joyful Creations! I wanted to bring a fun, creative aspect to sensory for kids 3 and up using play dough!
I started making play dough sensory jars, play dough sensory kits, and sensory book kits. Each jar or kit comes with play dough and various sensory items great for creative and imaginative sensory play! They are great screen free activities, rainy day activities, or excellent travel jars! My almost 3-year-old son has played with them in hotels, restaurants, and appointments. We keep a jar in his backpack! They also make super fun party favors! You can choose the party jars or send me your custom theme ideas.
The kits make excellent gifts. Sometimes finding a gift for a child is hard because there is so many toys to choose from. This is something they can use for a long time and help develop skills at the same time! The book kits are great for children who love to read because they can recreate themes from the book with play dough and fun objects!
There are so many fun themes to choose from as well as characters! Most jars can be made into a larger scale kit. We are working on new ideas every week!
Recommended for ages 3 and up. There are small pieces so adult supervision is also recommended.
You can click the Joyful Creations Store link at the top of the page, or you can click on one of the pictures below to be taken to that product!
