Here are some ideas you can use with your kids for sensory play and sensorimotor exploration and development.
Some great ideas from Your Therapy Source: Indoor Ladder Path, Creative Painting Activity, and Hiking.
Let Kids Play offers some great toy ideas for sensory exploration.
These Imagination Playgrounds by Kaboom are based on ‘free play’ and look like tons of fun while providing your child with a structured way to get input.
Kids and Kaboodle offers sensory exploration ideas out of ‘The Out of Sync Child Has Fun‘.
Mommy Poppins has 99 Sensory Activities for any child!
Playgrounds in general are a great source for sensory input and exploration. Sand provides tactile input and is great for bare hands and feet to explore. In addition walking across the sand challenges balance reactions. Swings and merry-go-rounds were mentioned in ‘Sensory Exploration in Today’s Society‘ and slides are always a great go to. Monkey bars work on upper extremity and core strength as well as motor planning and coordination. In addition, just running around the playground and exploring while interacting with other children allows your child the opportunity to work on figuring things out for themselves.
Obstacle courses are another one of my favorites. You can put whatever you want into the course and make it as long or as short as you want. And, you can vary it every time you make it so your kids never get bored. Have them help you put it together and then have races through it. You may have to make it shorter initially if your child has a hard time sequencing a lot of tasks. They can be indoors or outdoors as well which completely changes the type of activities that you can do. Basically you are limited by your imagination!
What are your ideas for sensory exploration?
