List of Sensory Activities For Babies

Babies are a little bundle of joy and introducing them to the new world is an important task. It depends on the parents to awaken the baby’s senses. The little creatures cannot speak or describe what they feel when they start interacting with the external world, yet they are trying hard to take in everything. Sensory activities for babies are a great tool that helps the baby explore, touch, and feel, understand the cause and effect, build up vocabulary, and enhance their motor skills with small things present around them. They can play and learn with sensory activities. The more innovative the parents are the better it is for the babies to learn in a happy manner.

Amazing Top 8 Benefits of Sensory Activities For Babies

Sensory activities are simple play times with the baby including hands-on activities that help in abstract thinking and seeking solutions to the problem. It involves motor and visual stimulation and even helps in developing language and other skills. It is also a way to let the babies mess up and emerge stronger by developing a natural sense of persistence and curiosity.

Some of the benefits of sensory activities for the baby are listed below

1. Sensory Experiences Help Babies Develop Their Knowledge Base as They Grow

Using sensory material and encouraging self-centered play helps to develop the child and create his unique style and understanding.

2. Support Cognitive Development

Sensory play helps to develop the brain. Trying new things from time to time helps in improving the child to in becoming better later in life.

3. Encourage the Development of Fine and Gross Motor Skills

Sensory activity encourages the baby’s movement and stimulates them to play in a repetitive manner.

[Read : Baby’s Fine Motor Skill Development]

4. Help Babies With Exploring, Problem-Solving and Creativity

Babies love to push, listen, sniff, pull, pour, tap, jump, make patterns, wiggle etc. All such actions help them to explore more, look for solutions and find their own ways of engaging in play also.

5. Encourage the Development of Language

Babies use several senses simultaneously to stimulate the learning process and develop vocabulary as well. By hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting, the baby tries to think, feel, learn and compare their world and the things used in it.

6. Children Become Calm When They Indulge in Sensory Play

When babies start sensory play, they get busy with the activity they are doing. This can be either outdoors or indoors. Activities, like playing in sand, making castles, playing with bubbles, making noise with objects and shouting with them, help to calm the baby by distracting them.

7. Help Children Understand Differences and Characteristics

Sensory play also offers learning conditions where kids learn to discover different colors, they even use senses of feel and touch to differentiate the texture and shape as well.

8. Arouse Logical Ability

It is the requisite of sensory play to think, research, get creative, messy, make mistakes, and understand cause he, and effect to boost the senses in understanding better. A child can throw a vessel and understand that it produces sound, he can then apply the same theory and throw a ball, but it might bounce yet not produce a sound. These are practical applications that help the child to learn well.

Best Practices For Sensory Play

Sensory play can be any activity that stimulates the child’s seven senses. Here are a few practices that must be borne in mind for sensory play.

Sensory play must boost the concept of repetition to encourage imagination, uniqueness, creativity, and logical thinking.
It is important to integrate learning with some fun activities.
Have lots of patience and be ready to see the child mess up and make zillions of mistakes.

How to Do Sensory Play With Your Baby?

Sensory play is the best way to engage the baby and kindle his senses and learning and development. It comprises hands-on activities that help the child to explore more through using his senses of taste, sound, smell and sight.

The activities do not have a structured form and encourage the child to dive and play in their own way.

Sensory play is different at different ages. Very young babies are happy to hear the birds chirp, see lights changing, and feel a soft cloth or toy while older ones like to squeeze, wiggle, pour, pull, throw etc.

As the babies grow, they are busier with the sensory activities and start using several senses at the same time with the help of toys or objects around them. It is a good idea to let the baby explore a rice bin, making mud castles, explore with play dough or play with a water table.

[Read : Baby’s Sense of Smell Development]

When to Start Sensory Play With Babies?

As such, there is no set age for the baby to indulge in sensory play. Babies are ready for sensory play from the time they are born but it is ideal for a baby of nine months to indulge in sensory play as it allows them to explore better, become messier and become more independent. If the natural curiosity of the baby needs to develop, then they must be given the opportunity to play the way they want, this teaches them more and they emerge as strong learners.

List of Age Appropriate Sensory Play Activities For Your Baby

There are numerous sensory play activities that engage a child and help with growth and development. The list of activities is age appropriate. Some of the sensory activities for babies are given as under.

1. Newborn to Three Months

Touch and tickle the baby to see them giggle.
To boost the visual stimulus, hang colorful mobile or hangings above the crib of the baby.
Let the baby shake or hold the rattle.
Skin-to-skin contact with parents or nanny.
Look for reactions of the baby when one smiles, touches them, or calls them.
Sing songs or play with them to enhance the listening skills of the baby.
Tapping the mirror to call the baby’s name and with time he will start understanding that the mirror baby is himself.
Introduce family photos to the baby and show him the smiling ones.

[Read : Baby’s Sense of Touch Development]

2. Four to Six Months

The baby will understand the textures like soft, hard, wool, cotton etc. when they touch and feel.
Play with the baby by holding him in different positions, this develops balance and a sense of movement.
Make the baby play with colors and give them different balls to make them understand the concept of drop, roll and bounce. One can even use bottles to show them sliding.

3. Seven to Nine Months

Let them examine objects and encourage exploring them by using both hands.
Allow them to develop interest by turning pages of a board book with sounds or textures.
Help the child to segregate the concept of spaces by keeping toys or objects near or away from him to understand what if far vs. what is near.
Make the baby do simple experiments to show that all objects are not picked with the same force.
Let the child explore the surroundings, shapes, colors, texture, and other characteristics.
Let them look at the environment from different positions like crawling, sitting, lying on the tummy, standing with support etc.

4. Ten Months to a Year

Play hide and seek or peek-a-boo with baby.
Point body parts when the baby sees himself in the mirror
Let them crawl through and under objects present in the home premises.
Give the baby different types of food like biscuits, cheese balls, chapati, juice, soup for a better understanding of food textures.
Never let the baby access smoking zones or get close to chemical agents etc.

5. Thirteen Months to Eighteen Months

Blow bubbles for the baby and watch the baby’s excitement as they try to touch and pop the bubbles as they fall.
Wrap a board or table with plastic and spray toothpaste or shaving cream on top of it, let the baby explore the same by using spoons, hands, or a spatula.
Fill a bucket or basket with blocks of varied sizes, colors, and textures. It is important to remember that the size of the blocks should not be very small as the baby can ingest them which is dangerous.
Let the baby make their own shapes by using play dough but never leave the child unattended.
Use paper towel rolls and fill them with beans, beads, pulses etc. Seal the other end with a tape and let the baby understand different sounds.

Thus, sensory play is an incredible way to have fun. It is great entertainment for the baby and the child gets busy for a longer span of time doing things their way. Parents must, however, remember that the babies will end up being messy, experimenting and exploring more with time. It is even important to be with the child and watch that they are safe and not in any danger.

FAQ’s

1. What Are Some Sensory Activities For Infants?

At a very young age, sensory activities for an infant can be very simple. You can tickle them to watch them laugh, you can sing to them and grab their attention. In addition, you can also hang different colored and types of toys to their crib or swing to help them teach colors and sounds. You can touch them to teach them the feel and sense of touch. Talking to them is also a sensory activity at this stage.

2. What Are Some Age Appropriate Activities For Infants?

Some ways in which you can play with your infant include ticking them, giving them tummy time, making faces, providing textured books, showing them different colors, water play, and musical toys.

3. What Are Some Examples of Sensory Activities For Babies?

Some sensory activities for babies can include sandbox with edible sand, activity box, activity table, sensory box, sound tubes, plate filled with grains or pulses, water box with toys in it etc.

List of Sensory Activities For Babies

Amazing Top 8 Benefits of Sensory Activities For Babies