Sensory activities of the day…continued

13.Party Blower Painting

From (https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/)

 

This is a messy and fun oral motor activity with a creative edge.

All you need is some paper, paint (the more colors you have the more fun it will be), and party blowers.

To begin, tape a pad of paper to the wall. Now, dip the party blower into some paint and have your child blow it towards the paper. This will create colorful and interesting patterns on the paper.

This activity is great for learning breath control and it also helps your child develop awareness of their mouth and learn movements that are needed for making speech sounds.

 

14. Laundry Basket Push Game

From (https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/)

 

This is an amazing activity for improving on your child’s proprioceptive skills.

Fill up a laundry basket with lots of toys. Depending on your child’s age and how much they can push, decide what and how much you want to put in the basket.

You could have your child push the basket from one point to the other or even carry it around the house depending on how heavy the basket is.

This activity not only acts as a form of exercise, but also aids in improving motor movements and skills.

 

15.Rainbow Dyed Noodles

From (https://www.growingajeweledrose.com/)

 

This fun and easy activity promotes sensory exploration through the visual and tactile senses.

For this activity, you’ll need: cooked pasta noodles, zip-sealed bags, food coloring, vegetable oil, and a play bin or any container.

Begin by cooking your desired amount of pasta noodles (you can use spaghetti noodles as well). Rinse the noodles under cold water. Now divide the noodles into different zip sealed bags (one for each color you wish to use).

Add several drops of your chosen food coloring into each of the bags along with a drop of vegetable oil. Seal the bags and allow your children to squish and squeeze the bags in order to coat the noodles in color.

Once saturated, allow the noodles to dry for around 20-30 minutes. Now pour the noodles into a container of your choice and let the fun begin!

To promote motor skills, give your child a pair of scissors to cut through the noodles. Allow your child to squish and stir through the gooey mixture. This will help them work on their tactile sense and explore texture.

16. Calming Cookie Dough

From (https://kidsplaysmarter.com/)

 

Deep pressure tactile input is important for children with tactile and/or proprioceptive sensory processing dysfunction. This involves squeezing, holding, hugging, or cuddling.

This activity helps in providing pressure to your child’s muscles that he/she may not be getting otherwise.

For this activity, you will need an exercise ball and a soft surface like a bed or a big cushion for the child to lie on.

Start by having your child lie face down on a soft surface of your choice. Now gently roll the exercise ball up and down their body. Apply the amount of pressure that your child would be comfortable with.

Besides having a calming effect on the child, deep pressure stimulation can also be useful for decreasing the overall anxiety in your child.

 

 17.Mazes & Dot-to-Dot Activities

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

 

Mazes and ‘join the dots’ activities are great for developing your child’s visual system.

You can draw mazes on a piece of paper for the child to solve or make it more interesting by drawing mazes on the sidewalk with a chalk or in the sand. The child can be asked to follow the maze with his/her finger, a chalk, a toy car, or a crayon.

Dot-to-Dot patterns can be drawn on a graph paper for the child to follow.

These types of activities have benefits in improving your child’s hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and even help in improving the ability to concentrate in children.

18. Star Box

From (https://whereimaginationgrows.com/)

 

This magical activity is incredible for calming your child down and it also helps in stimulating the visual sense.

You’ll need a cardboard box (big enough to accommodate your child), a pair of scissors, and fairy lights.

Start by poking holes on one side of the box. You can make these holes randomly or even create constellations for some added fun and learning. Insert colorful fairy lights through these holes. Now, have your child lie on his/her back inside the box so that they can gaze up and observe the lights above.

It is important to ensure that the lights aren’t too bright or too hot.

19. Sorting Buttons

From (https://www.sensacalm.com/)

 

This is a very simple activity that will not only help your child work on their visual and fine motor skills, but also help improve their numeracy skills and the ability to recognize and differentiate between colors.

For this activity, you will need buttons of various sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. You can mix up these buttons and have your child sort them on the basis of color, shape, or size.

To make this activity a bit more challenging, you can give your child a pair of plastic tweezers to pick up the buttons!

 

   20.Fabric Board

From (https://www.autismeducates.com/)

 

This activity is great for children who tend to be tactilely defensive.

Take a big piece of cardboard or foam board and attach it to a wall at eye-level. With some glue, stick different pieces fabrics onto the board.

Pick out the fabrics that you wish to introduce your child to. Fabrics like silk, flannel, felt, sandpaper, faux leather can be used.

Have your child touch each fabric and have them describe how that particular fabric feels. Once the child is familiar with all the fabrics, you can ask them to close their eyes and guess what fabric they are touching.

This activity promotes a sense of touch in children and is an effective way to introduce children to different fabrics on a small scale.

 

21. Water Play

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

 

In her book, ’The Out of Sync Child’, Carol describes this activity as educational and therapeutic.

Start by filling up your sink with sudsy water. Put some unbreakable pitchers and bottles, sponges, toy water pumps, or other toys in the water. You can also fill up a washtub with water and set it outside in your backyard if that’s what you prefer.

Allow your child to pour, measure, and play with the water using the pitchers and the toys. This is an entertaining activity sure to keep your child engaged for long periods of time.

 

22Making Shapes

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

 

This is a very simple activity that’ll work on your child’s fine motor skills.

Use different materials like play dough (chapati/roti dough is a great substitute), sand, shaving cream, finger paint, etc. Have your child draw shapes, alphabets, numbers in these materials.

(You can also play games like tic-tac-toe or draw mazes in these materials for some added fun.)

Along with helping your child learn shapes, letters, and numbers, this activity also helps in improving the child’s hand-eye coordination and motor movements!

 

23.Cutting Activities

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

Cutting activities are the easiest to implement and they work wonders for improving the child’s visual-motor skills, bilateral coordination, and strengthening hand muscles.

Provide some paper (colorful paper will make this activity more fun) and scissors to your child and have him/her cut strips, fringes, or shapes.

You can also draw curved or zigzag lines on the paper and for your child to cut.

Cutting a different material like playdough could be fun too.

 

24. Balloon Fun

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

 

Playing with balloons can be great for building bilateral skills as well as hand-eye coordination.

Have your child toss up the balloon and get them to try and catch it.

Count the number of times your child can keep the balloon afloat by repeatedly whacking it with both hands clasped together.

The balloon can also be used to play catch or to play a game of ‘balloon tennis’ where paper plates and paddle pop sticks can be used as tennis racquets.

 

25.Ribbon Dancing

By Carol Stock Kranowitz

From her book ’The Out of Sync Child’

 

All you need for this activity are some ribbons, scarves, or streamers and dowels (ice-cream sticks or paintbrushes can be used as substitutes).

Tie the ribbon at the end of the dowel. Have your child wave the ribbon overhead by holding on to the dowel.

Make your child do various movements by waving the ribbon around. If you do not have anything to attach the ribbon to, just have your child hold a ribbon in each hand.

This activity is great for improving the child’s visual-motor coordination.

26. Footprint Painting

From (www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk)

This is an easy-to-do and creative activity that your child will surely enjoy.

All you need is some paint and a large sheet of paper. Start with spreading out the paper on the floor.

Apply some paint to your child’s feet and make them walk around on the paper.
You can also draw something on the paper and have your child use spruce up the drawing using footprint designs.

This activity could get a bit messy, so make sure you lay out newspapers around to protect your floors. Also, remember to keep water and towels handy to clean the paint off of your child’s feet.

 

27. Colorful Ice Mincing

From (https://parenting.firstcry.com/)

 

This is a treasure hunt style activity that is both fun and engaging.

To start, take a tall container and fill about a half of it with water and freeze it. Now add small toys, sequins, sparkly objects, chickpeas, etc into the container. Pour in more water and freeze it again. Repeat this process until a long ice tower is created.

Now have your kids find the many objects buried in the ice tower using things like warm spoons and salt.

This activity is great for working on your child’s sensory integration and motor skills.

 

28. Make a Shape

From (https://parenting.firstcry.com/)

 

This activity is a great way to teach your child about shapes and the concept of symmetry.

All you need are some ice-cream sticks and markers.

Place two ice-cream sticks next to each other and have your child draw a shape on both of these sticks. Make it so that when the sticks are separated, the shape will get split up as well.

Have your kid draw as many shapes or geometric figures as they desire. Then, mix up these sticks and have them find the right pair that completes a shape.

 

29. Tissue Paper Art

From (https://sensoryprocessingdisorderparentsupport.com/)

 

This activity is amazing for developing your child’s fine motor skills.

You will need some tissue paper (you can also use newspaper), pencils, colors, paper, and glue for this activity. Start by having your child draw something on a sheet of paper. It can be as simple as a picture of a flower, a house, or even an elaborate drawing.

Now, take some tissue paper and have your child scrunch it up. The tissue paper can be colored beforehand using markers or paint. Have your child paste these colorful scrunched up pieces of tissue paper onto the drawing.

Along with some creative fun, this activity will also work on improving your child’s fine motor movements!

 

30. Raining Rainbows

From (https://www.jojoebi-designs.com/)

 

This activity can serve as a way to calm your child down, plus it’s pretty fun and easy to make!

For this activity, you will need a glass container or a vase, some food coloring, water, and shaving foam. Start by filling up about 2/3s of the glass container with water. Then add some shaving foam at the top. Make sure that it’s spread out well so that it covers all the water.

Mix some food coloring with a little bit of water in a bowl. Now add this color to the glass container with the help of a dropper or a spoon.

Watch as the food coloring soaks through the shaving foam and eventually drips down into the water, creating mesmerizing patterns. Add different colors of your choice to make it look like its raining rainbows!