Kids use all of their senses to explore the world around them, and sensory play gives them the perfect environment to do just that.
1. It Fosters Emotional connection
Children love doing things alongside us, and playing with playdough together is an amazing way that we get to wander into their creative world. It lets them know that we see them and want to be with them. This participation together brings feelings of safety and emotional connection to our child – connection and safety are key elements for a healthy foundation in childhood development.
2. It Helps with Complex Learning Tasks
Bringing sensory input to our littles helps them process and comprehend the world around them. Incorporating sensory and imaginative play when teaching children is an excellent way to help them break down new or complex tasks.
Playdough not only creates a visual, but sensory input helps our brains store information. Using playdough as a means to, say, put letters together to form a word is going to help their brains comprehend and retain the information input.
3. It Assists Brain Development
Engaging our senses is one of the top ways that we as humans learn. Think about some of your favorite memories and remember the way something felt, smelled, tasted, looked, or sounded – like sand between your toes or the smell of a favorite family meal.
Creating these magical moments with our children will not only help them explore and process the world around them and create sweet memories alongside them, but sensory play is a crucial part of early childhood development as it helps their brains better retain information.
4. It Teaches Sensory Attributes
Having your child help make the playdough is a great way to really enhance this particular benefit. They can observe as the ingredients go from dry to wet, then wet to solid. Playdough is a great way for them to learn other sensory attributes such as hot & cold, sticky & dry, and smooth & rough.
5. It Aids in Language Development
Talking with your child about what they’re building, what they see, feel, or smell, or what they’re working on and how they plan to do it is one low-stress way to practice language skills. Even if at first it is you modeling all the language, your child will soon join you in the conversation and learn new words.
6. It Practices Hand-Eye Coordination
Before the sensory play even begins, as you make homemade playdough having your kids help you put the ingredients together, stir it up, and mend it are all ways we can also activate that hand-eye coordination!
Setting out other little utensils for them to use will help their hand-eye coordination too. Things like rolling pins, toothpicks, spoons, cookie cutters, and any other household items you can find are all great ways to get their little hands and eyes working together.
7. It Develops Fine Motor Skills
Rolling, stacking, flattening, ripping, squishing, and building are all ways that your child’s fine motor skills will strengthen with playdough. Playdough play will also build strength in their hands that will be needed later to use scissors and write.
So many of the play possibilities are going to really focus on their little hands doing big work as they explore the world of playdough.
8. It Encourages Problem-Solving
When kids are let loose to explore and figure things out on their own, they have the instinct to problem-solve. Letting children be with a batch of playdough gives their brains wide open space to problem-solve. How will they build a tower that stands? Can they figure out a way to make an animal? How would they turn two colors into one? playdough creates so many opportunities for their minds to problem-solve their way through their creative ideas.
9. It is Calming
Do you ever have those moments where your child’s big feelings can’t seem to be quelled? It can feel overwhelming as parents and caregivers when we can’t help our littles find ways to calm their bodies when the feelings are big. Connecting with young children in those moments can be hard. Pausing to bring in sensory activities can be a way to help your child calm their nervous system. Letting them feel the squish of the play dough, or letting their mind have a free creative play, can be a great way for them to regulate their nervous system.
10. It Activates so Many of our Child’s Senses
There are a lot of great sensory play ideas out there, but this one allows the child to use the 5 top senses. With your very own homemade playdough, you can be sure that your child gets to safely explore if they choose to use their taste sense.
Because we use food-grade ingredients in our playdough recipe, it makes it taste safe should your child choose to bring it to their mouth. Taste-safe playdough will engage so many of your child’s senses while also feeling calm and confident about what is going onto their taste buds. That is a win-win!
Playdough and Sensory Play
After you’ve made your homemade playdough, you can set up a sensory bin full of items that your child can use to play with the playdough. I like to include things like plastic knives, rolling pins, cookie cutters, popsicle sticks, figurines, and anything else you can find around your home. It’s important to reduce choking hazards for little ones by ensuring they have supervision and that the supplemental items are large enough.
Shop my favorite toys to use with playdough here:
Easy Playdough Recipe: CLASSIC PLAYDOUGH
This one is my absolute favorite playdough recipe. It’s easy to make, has no cooking involved, has a 6+ month shelf life, and the texture is the closest to store-bought that you’ll get!
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ Cup table salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Cup boiling water
Food coloring
Essential Oils (to add extra sensory notes)
Directions:
1: Start boiling water
2: Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl
3: Add oil to the dry mixture, but DON’T stir
4: Measure out boiling water into a measuring cup and add food coloring, stir.
5: Add boiling water to the mixture and stir with a spoon until the flour is well incorporated and the mixture is cool enough to touch
6: Remove dough from bowl and mend dough with hands until playdough completely cools
7: If the dough is too wet after cooling, add a few tablespoons of flour. If the dough is too dry after cooling, add a little more boiling water.
Storage: Wrap tightly with plastic and place in an air-tight container. Store at room temperature for 6-8 months. Check for mold each time you get it out to play.
For this and many other sensory play recipes and ideas, check out the Mothercould in Your Pocket resource, where we encourage learning through play with fun, easy, and accessible play recipes using common household items so you can incorporate sensory play at home, on-the-go, and in the classroom.
