Everyone talks about the importance of Sensory Play, but what actually is it?
The good news is that Sensory play is more than just a catch phrase, but it is not a complicated scientific protocol you have to follow.
Put simply it’s just a way of playing with your baby that stimulates their senses, this could be sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. By encouraging your baby’s senses, you will help your baby develop thinking, language, social-emotional, and physical skills.
So why all the fuss about sensory play - if you think that by the time your baby is 3 years old they will have developed 85% of its brain you can see why introducing some sensory play in to your baby’s day could be so important.
When it comes to sensory play there are not many things which beat playing with water. Water can splash, trickle, disappear, it can have waves and bubbles, you can pour it in to things and out of things. And all of these things can be done at Bath time.
As part of our partnership with Peeple we have some sensory play suggestions for your bath time.
* Something as simple as patting the water to make a splash. First you do it and then you can encourage your baby to make a splash. This is great both for the sense of touch, and sound but also the simple but important skill of taking turns.
* Making a big splash either with your hands or by dropping a toy in the bath water, your baby learns about cause and effect which in turn helps them figure out how things work.
* Hide and seek is always a fun game to play in the bath. Either by simply wiping the bubbles away to discover your baby’s tummy underneath, or by letting a toy pop up from under the water is a great way for your baby to learn that things still exist even though they can’t see them.
* Singing songs in the bath
At Best Years we have some fabulous Natural Rubber Dinosaur toys which are great for bath time and sensory play. Handmade from Natural Rubber they have no nasty plastic or chemicals and neither do they have any holes in them so there is no chance of mouldy water lurking inside our dinosaur toys.
We think water, a song and a dinosaur toy are a particularly fun combination
Row Row Row your boat,
Gently to the Beach,
If you see a Dinosaur,
Don’t forget to Screech
