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Sensory Play for Toddlers
Part One: Developing the Sense of Touch By Laura Cone
Matos says she likes to read her daughter feel-and-touch books. She also gets her children involved in her scrapbooking hobby. "He loves cutting paper and looking at pictures," she says. "We do a lot with glue, pasting stuff down and decorating pages. I have the scissors with the different shapes. He likes to cut and then feel around for the different shapes of them."
To help her daughter learn proper touching boundaries, Matos shows her how to pat her older brother lightly instead of engaging in rough play.
Gilbert says parents may expose their children to different types of touch by getting them out in nature to walk through sand and touch rocks and stones and leaves. She recommends using different textures and playing with scarves, foam and different materials.
Finally, let your child go barefoot. Encourage your toddler to walk around in the sand, the grass or on bare floors, not just carpet. "The feet have thousands of nerves that go right to the brain," Gilbert says. "Get the shoes and socks off and, in a safe environment, let them feel with their feet. That's as important as the hands."
From creating arts and crafts to helping you cook in the kitchen, toddlers will rarely say "no" to anything involving their sense of touch. Prepare for messes in the home or allow your toddler to play supervised outside where Mother Nature has a cornucopia of textures to feel.