Sensory-Friendly Play Ideas for Kids of All Ages to Try at Home
Children connect with and understand the world through play. From building blocks to passing a ball, each activity is a mix of learning and fun! Playtime is also a way for children to develop sensory perceptions, recognize sounds and textures, which helps them experience the world in their own way. However, this can become overwhelming rather than exciting, especially for highly sensitive children. By intentionally choosing activities that avoid overstimulation, parents can give their kids a safe and joyful playtime. If you’re looking for calming play ideas for your sensitive child, then these sensory-friendly play ideas are easy to try at home and will support your child’s nervous system and emotional regulation. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is Sensory-Friendly Play?
Sensory-friendly play ideas are an intentional approach to learning and play. These favor gentle and predictable input during play time as opposed to bombarding a child with highly stimulating sensory bins. Think of buckets loaded with beads, small toys, or colorful kinetic sand with hidden gems; all of these have a multitude of textures and sounds that could be overwhelming for a highly sensitive child. Which then disrupts their emotional regulation and academic and social activities.
Sensory-friendly play ideas, on the other hand, are all about adopting a steady and careful approach. Introducing one material at a time through play and making sure that your child is able to control the pace is what does wonders for their highly sensitive minds. A soft cotton ball or slow rhythmic action will soothe your child and offer a zone where they feel the safest and engaged. This builds emotional resilience and a deeper connection, that allows the child to build confidence in their own ability to self-soothe.
Sensory-Friendly Play Ideas: A Tool for Emotional Regulation and Connection
Incorporating sensory-friendly play ideas goes beyond just having fun. It actively tunes your child’s nervous system to a place of calm and safety from where they are able to heal. Activities such as squeezing a soft stress ball or scooping up warm water directly stimulates the parasympathetic system, which lowers heart rate and reduces cortisol release that shifts the body out of the ‘flight or fright’ mode. Once a child is able to engage in these activities everyday, they recognize their levels of baseline calm, which makes everyday situations more manageable.
Moreover, sensory-friendly play provides a unique opportunity for parents and children to connect on a deeper level. It also sets the ground for co-regulation which is a process through which a parent’s conscious presence attunes a child’s responses. For instance, breathing in sync, tug of war with a stretchy band, or slow finger painting are all activities that build a sense of safety and familiarity. Engaging in sensory-friendly play also builds emotional trust and social bonding between you and your child, which later helps them in internalizing the calm rhythms. Learn more about play therapies here.
Sensory-Friendly Play Ideas For All Ages
Toddlers
Warm Water Pouring:
Take two bowls and fill them with warm water. Give your child a small ladle or cup to scoop and pour water from one bowl to another in slow and repetitive fashion.
Finger Painting:
Let your child choose just one colour that they like and allow them to swipe it with their finger across a paper. Encourage gentle strokes!
Fabric Pull:
Gather all kinds of soft fabric in your house: fleece, cotton, velvet. And then ask your toddler to pull out the one that is ‘the softest’ or ‘the smoothest.’
Preschoolers
Warm Hugs:
Most kids love hugs! Only if they’re not too overwhelming. Offering small weighted plushies to your child for bedtime or storytime can be really grounding for them.
Sculpting:
All you need is a single block of kinetic sand and one cookie cutter. Let your child press and cut shapes through the sand at their own pace.
Discovery Box:
Surprises can be a lot, and not in a good way. But if you roll them out consciously, then they can spark curiosity. Take a box with a simple object. Let your child feel it and then ask them, ‘What do you think this is?’
School-Aged
Nature Walk:
School-going kids generally enjoy physical activities! Go to the park and explore a sense. ‘What does this flower smell like?’ or watch out for the birds, and how they sound.
Rhythmic Breathing:
Try breathing exercises with your child! Put a folded cloth on each other’s belly and breathe together to see it rise and fall.
Color Calm:
Give easy-to-follow prompts to your child and not more than three colors. Ask them to draw a ‘blue circle’ and then a ‘yellow heart.’
What Makes Sensory-Friendly Play Ideas Successful
If we look carefully, essentially all activities can be converted into sensory-friendly play! And in order to do so, you just need to know a few things. First things first, always introduce one stimulus at a time. Avoid overstimulation by keeping different textures or movements completely separate.
Let your child decide the pace of their play. Do they want to stop? Or switch? Then let them. This puts them in charge and also makes them feel independent. Engage in activities with your child side-by-side when you can, so they feel supported. Most importantly, design activities around a predictable structure and routine, so your child knows when to expect playtime and what kind.
Setting Up a Sensory-Friendly Play Space in Your Home
Employing sensory-friendly play ideas in your space does not mean starting over from scratch. Just a few changes here and there, and you’re good to go! Choose a corner that is not well frequented and add what you can:
Soft seating, such as cushions and bean bags.
Adjust lighting that helps your child calm down, such as fairy lights and dimmable lamps.
A curated selection of calming down toys like weighted plushies, a stress ball, or noise-reducing headphones.
Provide a clear storage space in the form of baskets and trays that is easily accessible to your child. This will significantly reduce clutter.
Now it’s time to observe and adjust! Is there something that your child finds overstimulating? Feel free to replace it.
Sensory-Friendly Play Ideas: Low-Cost DIY
Calm Down Jar
Take an empty jar and fill it halfway with water, and then add a bit of glue. Let your child sprinkle their favorite colored glitter inside and seal it off. Then, when you shake it, a glitter storm will emerge!! Watch as the glitter settles down at the bottom and soothes your mind.
Weighted Bean Sock
Find a clean and large sock at your home and fill it up with beans or rice, whichever is available. Tie the sock at the top and use it as a weighted plushie for pressure hugs. Feel free to add sequin eyes or ears!
Pop the Wrap
We all have some kind of bubble wrap lying around the house. You can clip it up on a board or attach it securely to a flat surface. And then get to popping it with your child. Take it slowly, one bubble at a time, to avoid overstimulation.
Spotting Sensory Cues and Gentle Co-Regulation
Despite all your efforts in adopting sensory-friendly play ideas, things might not go your way. And that’s completely okay!! It could be at the school or during a trip when playtime becomes chaotic and leads to emotional dysregulation. In such cases, spotting the signs of overstimulation early on can help you diffuse the situation relatively quickly. These signs can be in the form of your child tensing their shoulders, adopting a rigid posture, or covering their ears or eyes. More evident signs can look like tearfulness or sudden shutdown and withdrawal from the activity.
When this happens, adopting co-regulation strategies can be useful. Ask your child to breathe at your pace, and then breathe slowly, which might help them calm down. Rhythmic pats on their back or deep-pressure hugs can feel extremely grounding in such moments. Verbalise what you see and then offer predictable choices, ‘I see that you are squeezing your hands, would you like to switch places if this feels too much?’ Over time, these co-regulation strategies will become a layout for how your child sees and responds to the world.
