Why is Sensory Play Good for Child Development? 

24th April 2023

Our senses allow us to experience and navigate our world. With highly developed senses and proper cognitive functioning, our experience of the world will be much better. This will help us develop a deeper sense of appreciation of the world around us. 

Children will also better appreciate and experience the world around them if they already have properly developed senses. In addition, this will further encourage them to learn and explore. They will get to be exposed to a variety of sensations and help them further move around and work with the things around them. 

Sensory play and early childhood development 

With the huge role of the senses, this shows that sensory play is essential in child development. After all, children receive external inputs through the senses (and then their brains process, consolidate and make sense of those inputs). With healthy sensory stimulation, their brains will have a lot more to process. This can help them build and reinforce neural connections crucial for their rapid brain development during their early years. 

As a result, sensory play has been always included in activities at early learning centres. This type of play can support children’s rapid development as well as add further variety to their activities. In addition, sensory play allows and further encourages the following: 

  • Exploration 
  • Curiosity 
  • Problem solving 
  • Creativity 

Moreover, sensory play can allow children to further practice their motor skills as they handle and play around with different objects and textures. Although sometimes it can be messy, sensory play activities (e.g. playing with sand, liquids and mud) can help children better learn about cause and effect (how objects respond to what they do). 

Also, sensory play is a lot of fun. Here, they have the freedom to experiment and play around with different objects and surfaces. This freedom can help them further establish their self-reliance and a sense of adventure which are crucial when they get to big school and beyond.