Recently a Y parent walked into one of our YMCA child care centres and noticed a strange combination of activities set up on the activity tables. While at first she felt confused and conflicted about what her child would be doing that day, one of our lovely ECE’s, Danielle, addressed her concerns on the spot and explained that the day’s programming revolved around something called sensory play.
In our last blog, we dove deeper into the definition of sensory play and how it ties in with our acclaimed YMCA Playing to Learn™ curriculum. In this post, we’ll be exploring the key benefits associated with sensory play, and why our YMCA Early Childhood Educators and Child Care Workers choose to incorporate it in their programming.
Here are four important benefits of sensory play:
1. It supports early childhood development
As highlighted in our YMCA Playing to Learn curriculum, the Y believes that children learn best when their natural instinct toward play is encouraged. Using sensory play as a fun and interactive learning medium, children are able to develop nerve connections in their brain early on — connections that are critical in their early stages of development. These nerve connections help and support different aspects of a child’s development, including: early language development, cognitive growth, development of fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, memory enhancement and social interaction.
2. It helps children learn about important sensory attributes
Through sensory play, children are able to experience and learn vitally about sensory attributes like hot, cold, sticky, squishy, dry, wet, etc. Referring back to the Jell-O dig activity (from our last blog), your child will likely learn and experience what it means for something to be squishy, cold, and sticky to the touch after playing in the box. On top of this, by encouraging your child to grab letters or objects out of a container of Jell-O, we are then encouraging them to use and improve their fine motor skills which will help them hold pencils and use scissors later on in primary school.
3. It encourages scientific thinking
Without even noticing it, sensory play activities often encourage children to make use of the scientific method, which they will later learn about in school. The scientific method includes: making an observation, constructing a hypothesis, carrying out an experiment, and making a conclusion. During sensory play, children unknowingly do all of this, which helps get their gears moving. When we continuously encourage children to develop a healthy habit of thinking critically and scientifically, we are able to then help the child form a solid foundation for academia.
4. It helps tame anxiety
Believe it or not, sensory play is a great way to help calm an anxious or a frustrated child. By utilizing their other senses, children are able to channel, express, and feel other emotions and sensations without having to use words. In fact, back in 2006, researchers performed a study where they created a sensory room for children. This room was filled with a variety of resources including a mood lamp, music, a projector, bubble tubes, and aromatherapy. After reviewing the results from the study, researchers found that children who visited the sensory room developed better self-esteem and saw an improvement in their emotional wellbeing.
For most children, the desire to engage in sensory play comes naturally. That’s why we believe that it is our responsibility as caregivers to provide your child with the means necessary to learn and grow from a young age.
At the Y, our educators meticulously implement our YMCA Playing to Learn™ curriculum to ensure that our staff are proactively taking the best approach to support your child's continued enthusiasm and capacity for life-long learning. To learn more about Playing to Learn™ at our Early Learning and Child Care Programs, please visit our website.
In our last blog, we dove deeper into the definition of sensory play and how it ties in with our acclaimed YMCA Playing to Learn™ curriculum. In this post, we’ll be exploring the key benefits associated with sensory play, and why our YMCA Early Childhood Educators and Child Care Workers choose to incorporate it in their programming.
Here are four important benefits of sensory play:
1. It supports early childhood development
As highlighted in our YMCA Playing to Learn curriculum, the Y believes that children learn best when their natural instinct toward play is encouraged. Using sensory play as a fun and interactive learning medium, children are able to develop nerve connections in their brain early on — connections that are critical in their early stages of development. These nerve connections help and support different aspects of a child’s development, including: early language development, cognitive growth, development of fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, memory enhancement and social interaction.
2. It helps children learn about important sensory attributes
Through sensory play, children are able to experience and learn vitally about sensory attributes like hot, cold, sticky, squishy, dry, wet, etc. Referring back to the Jell-O dig activity (from our last blog), your child will likely learn and experience what it means for something to be squishy, cold, and sticky to the touch after playing in the box. On top of this, by encouraging your child to grab letters or objects out of a container of Jell-O, we are then encouraging them to use and improve their fine motor skills which will help them hold pencils and use scissors later on in primary school.
3. It encourages scientific thinking
Without even noticing it, sensory play activities often encourage children to make use of the scientific method, which they will later learn about in school. The scientific method includes: making an observation, constructing a hypothesis, carrying out an experiment, and making a conclusion. During sensory play, children unknowingly do all of this, which helps get their gears moving. When we continuously encourage children to develop a healthy habit of thinking critically and scientifically, we are able to then help the child form a solid foundation for academia.
4. It helps tame anxiety
Believe it or not, sensory play is a great way to help calm an anxious or a frustrated child. By utilizing their other senses, children are able to channel, express, and feel other emotions and sensations without having to use words. In fact, back in 2006, researchers performed a study where they created a sensory room for children. This room was filled with a variety of resources including a mood lamp, music, a projector, bubble tubes, and aromatherapy. After reviewing the results from the study, researchers found that children who visited the sensory room developed better self-esteem and saw an improvement in their emotional wellbeing.
For most children, the desire to engage in sensory play comes naturally. That’s why we believe that it is our responsibility as caregivers to provide your child with the means necessary to learn and grow from a young age.
At the Y, our educators meticulously implement our YMCA Playing to Learn™ curriculum to ensure that our staff are proactively taking the best approach to support your child's continued enthusiasm and capacity for life-long learning. To learn more about Playing to Learn™ at our Early Learning and Child Care Programs, please visit our website.
