Lockdown Friendly Fun Sensory Activities for ASD Kids

A sensory activity is any activity that involves and stimulates senses like touch, smell, sight, sound, or taste; helping build children’s linguistic, cognitive, visual-spatial, social, and emotional skills.

The everyday sensory stimuli around us that we take for granted can oftentimes be overwhelming for an autistic child to navigate through. Sensory play promotes the learning and processing of sensory stimuli. It can also be beneficial in various areas of development like – coordination and concentration.

Here are some fun and easy sensory activities to try with your kids while spending time at home-

Sandpaper and crayon art

Drawing and coloring on sandpaper with crayons is no easy task. The texture and grit make it so, that kids have to use their fine motor skills to get the job done! This activity encourages creativity whilst promoting concentration in kids. The easy accessibility of the materials is an added bonus!

Scented playdough

Divide a large batch of playdough into separate bowls and add easily identifiable scents or essences into each bowl. (Vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice, etc can be used). This fun activity not only engages the child’s fine motor skills as he/she plays with the dough but also, engages their sense of smell as they try to guess each smell.

The food tasting game

Here, the child will have to guess different foods while being blindfolded. Foods with varying textures like jelly, cereal, ketchup, yogurt, etc can be used in this game. This game is great for introducing your child to new foods with different tastes and textures.

I Spy 

The I Spy games are great for stimulating a child’s sense of sight. In this game, one player spots a random object around the room and says, for example – “I spy with my little eye, something red.” The task for the other players is to accurately locate and guess the object.

Musical jars 

Fill up multiple glass jars with varying levels of water. Have your child create music by tapping the jars with a metal spoon. The different sounds that each jar will create will be interesting and fun for the child to discover and play with. This activity is great for stimulating the sense of hearing.