Sensory play is a valuable and effective way to support the development of children with special needs. At Whiz Kidz St Albans, we recognise the importance of sensory play in enhancing the learning and development of all children, including those with special needs. Here are some of the key benefits of sensory play for children with special needs:
Sensory Stimulation
Sensory play provides children with special needs with valuable sensory stimulation, which can help them develop their sensory processing skills. This can be particularly beneficial for children with sensory processing disorder or autism spectrum disorder.
Calming and Soothing
Sensory play can have a calming and soothing effect on children with special needs, helping them regulate their emotions and reduce anxiety.
Development of Fine and Gross Motor Skills
Sensory play often involves activities that require children to use their hands and bodies, such as digging in sand or squeezing playdough. These activities can help children with special needs develop their fine and gross motor skills.
Encourages Exploration and Curiosity
Sensory play encourages children to explore their environment and engage with materials in a hands-on way. This can help children with special needs develop their curiosity and interest in the world around them.
Promotes Communication and Language Development
Sensory play can provide opportunities for children with special needs to communicate and express themselves. For example, children may use gestures, sounds, or words to describe what they are experiencing.
Social Interaction
Sensory play can also promote social interaction and cooperation among children with special needs. Engaging in sensory play with others can help children develop their social skills and build relationships.
Increases Attention and Focus
Sensory play can help children with special needs increase their attention and focus. Engaging in sensory activities can be highly engaging and motivating, helping children stay focused for longer periods.
Promotes Creativity and Imagination
Sensory play encourages children to use their imagination and creativity. Children can use sensory materials in open-ended ways, leading to imaginative play scenarios.
Enhances Cognitive Development
Sensory play can enhance cognitive development in children with special needs. Engaging with sensory materials can help children develop their problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and ability to make connections.
Overall Well-Being
Sensory play can contribute to the overall well-being of children with special needs. It can be a fun and enjoyable experience that helps children feel happy, relaxed, and fulfilled.
By incorporating sensory play into our activities at St Albans Whiz Kidz, you can provide valuable opportunities for children with special needs to learn, grow, and thrive. Sensory play can be tailored to meet the individual needs and preferences of each child, making it a versatile and effective tool for supporting children with special needs.
FAQs
Encourages Exploration and Curiosity
Why is sensory play important for children with special needs? ›
Sensory play works to build skills on several levels. Sight play encourages children to explore colors and experiment with light. Touch play helps children learn to experience the world using their hands. Taste play helps bring new sensations into their world and helps associate food with fun.
How does sensory play help a child's emotional development? ›
Allowing children to control their sensory experiences empowers them to manage their emotions and reactions. Exploration: Sensory play provides a safe space for exploration. Children can investigate new textures, smells, and sounds, building their curiosity and expanding their understanding of the world.
Why are sensory activities important for autism? ›
Engaging children with autism in sensory activities is beneficial in several ways, as it can help with: Stimulating the brain, creating neutral pathways and improving sensory processing systems. Improving social skills such as communication and co-operation. Improving co-ordination, as well as fine/gross motor skills.
How does play help children with special needs? ›
These experiences also help them develop essential life skills, improve their communication, and increase their independence, positively impacting their overall well-being. Playing together also helps build the parent-child bond and create lasting memories together.
Why is sensory stimulation important for learning? ›
Sensory play activities stimulate your child's senses which supports their brain and language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem-solving skills. With sensory play, there's always much more going on than meets the eye.
Why are sensory toys important for autism? ›
Sensory toys help children with autism relax, focus, and calm down to a scenario or event. It helps them grasp objects with decreased dear and discomfort, ultimately helping them play naturally. Futhermore, sensory toys help develop social learning skills like negotiating, planning, and sharing.
What is multisensory learning and why is it effective? ›
Multisensory learning is all about encouraging learners to use more than one of their senses when taking in new information. This learning style promotes using activities that appeal to our visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile senses.
How does play benefit children's development? ›
Play improves the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and young people. Through play, children learn about the world and themselves. They also learn skills they need for study, work and relationships such as: confidence.
What is sensory development in early childhood? ›
Sensory development relates to our senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell) which allow us to explore the world around us.
Emotional Benefits of Play
Free play has an important role to a child's emotional growth, and research has pointed to three areas where play helps children develop emotionally: building self-confidence and esteem; experimenting with various emotions; and releasing emotions from trauma.
Why is it important to meet sensory needs? ›
Sensory experiences can help children understand their environments and support them to feel safe and secure. A well-developed sensory system is essential for both cognitive and social intelligence and is therefore required for children to become successful learners.
What are the benefits of sensory play in early childhood? ›
Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. It helps to build nerve connections in the brain and encourages the development of language and motor skills.
What are examples of ways to increase sensory stimulation? ›
Games, quizzes, craft groups, gardening or pottery groups, outings, concerts, exercise programs, cooking, food tasting, sing-alongs, religious services and spiritual events can give sensory stimulation. Be conscious of the impact of lighting, flowers, décor, access to gardens and sunshine.
What is a sensory child with special needs? ›
“Sensory disabilities” can involve any of the five senses, but for educational purposes, it generally refers to a disability related to hearing, vision, or both hearing and vision. Sensory disabilities affect access – access to visual and/or auditory information.
Why are sensory items important for autism? ›
Sensory devices provide a host of mental, emotional, physical, and social benefits for children on the autism spectrum. They stimulate the brain, helping to create new neural pathways for processing, understanding, and reacting to sensory information. They help autistic children to: Calm down and relax.
Why play is important for children with autism? ›
Play therapy helps children with autism to engage in play activities of their interest and choice to express themselves in the most comfortable ways. It changes their way of self-expression from unwanted behaviors to more non-injurious expressive behavior using toys or activities of their choice as their words.
Why is sensory play important for Down syndrome? ›
It allows us to make an appropriate adaptive response to meet the demands of the task and environment. It is important to incorporate sensory elements into everyday activities such as play. Children generally learn using a multi-sensory approach, which allows another sensory system to re-enforce learning.
