Activities to Stimulate Sensory & Body Awareness In Early Childhood

Sensory Awareness
Here are some activities below to help the child develop awareness of self and environment:

Looking
• Blow bubbles and ask your child to watch and point as each bubble floats
• Choose visual action songs and nursery rhymes, such as Incy Wincy Spider
• Talk and call the child's name. Encourage him to look towards you. Observe your child's responses in different lights, such as bright, dusky lights or a dark room
• When helping a child dress, sit him in front of a mirror and encourage him to watch what he is doing
  
  Listening
• Use DIY plastic containers containing pasta, rice, beans to make variety of musical instruments
• Fill water into glass bottles at different levels to give different pitch when tapped
• Try variety of potential sound making materials - dropping bricks into container, sieving sand, pouring sand etc
  
  Smelling
• Keep a box of materials with distinctive smell such as jiffy lessons, lavender bags, coffee grains, orange peel etc. Talk to your child about smells and discuss smells which are pleasing and not so pleasing to your child
• Change the daily bath. Get herbal bath beads or bubble bath
• Play with a tray of potpourri
  
  Tasting
• Try food and drink with sweet tastes eg. chocolate spread, sorbets, honey and jam
• Try food and drink with salty tastes, salt, crisps, anchovies etc
• Use different textures eg. common and exotic fruits
• When tasting, give child a small portion of food and drink on his tongue to avoid choking. Leave plenty of time between tastes to avoid flooding the taste sensation
• Talk about dislikes and likes of some tastes
  
  Feeling
• Ask your child to feel or identify materials which are soft (eg. cotton wool, fur fabric, handcream), hard (pasta, large pebbles etc), rough (eg. sandpaper, velcro), smooth (eg. glass, silk), light (eg. paper, pingpong ball), heavy (eg. a piece of iron)
• Do foot and finger painting
• Make a tactile collage with variety fabrics, paper or leaves
• Roll your child in a big towel or blanket into a Swiss roll or sausage. Roll him and pat him to pretend play put icing sugar or stroke him to put sauce.
• When your child is having a regular bath, pour warm water over his shoulders, belly and back.

Play with "body parts" jigsaw puzzles Sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "When you are happy..." Let your child look into the mirror while dressing. Extend this by encouraging him to copy body movements or facial expressions in the mirror Trace the body outline of the child and ask him to draw in the parts

Rub his hands with different textures eg, bubble wrap, rough towelling, fur fabric Play with his hands, tickling his palms and putting them on your cheeks Encourage the child in messy play, eg, sand, water, palydough Use finger puppets made with bright texture fabrics

• roll a ball along a level surface and encourage your child to follow the ball with his eyes.
• Hide toys in boxes and ask your child to find them
• Use everyday toys, push a train into the tunnel, push Jack into the box and let it jump again
• Play hide and seek

Through play your child can learn that a specific action will trigger a response. Keep a collection of toys that will move or react the instant they are moved or struck.

• Play with a "wave drum" with see through insides filled with beads or other materials. When struck, materials will vibrate.
• Use pull along toys
• Use toys which produce a visual effect, eg kaleidoscopes, light sticks which glows in the dark
• Play with sound makers, eg. rattles, whistles, organ
• Choose toys which fit together eg. nesting toys, pop up stacking toys
• Use switches, eg pressing a switch will make a toy move, light up or sound

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