When enrolling your child in a daycare center, you can expect that there are a lot of activities he can participate in. Many of these activities involve play. Play is very crucial at this stage of his life because he explores the environment around him. When you visit a Thornhill daycare center, you will notice that sensory play is also encouraged. As the term implies, sensory play will involve activities that involve your child’s five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It also involves balance and movement which are both important in developing the senses. Sensory play for kids is encouraged by daycare centres because of the following reasons:
Supports a lot of your child’s growth processes
When a child uses his senses in playing, you allow him to exercise every important part of his body especially those that are connected with his senses. You encourage motor skills, language development and cognitive growth when you do and your child becomes more attentive to details of play which involve different concepts and materials. Not to forget that sensory play allows your child to explore the world around him thus making him learn new things that he has never learned before.
Helps your child become more responsive to complex things
Studies have shown how crucial the use of the senses is in order to initiate the connection between each nerve within the brain. This can be achieved through sensory play and whilst such activities initiate that connection, expect that a child becomes more responsive to doing complex things from being more creative with complicated tasks to improving one’s problem solving skills. This results to cognitive growth and language development.
Makes a child understand the surroundings
One of the reasons behind why daycare centres encourage sensory play is because of the fact that it helps children become more familiar with the things around them. As they exercise their senses through play, they know which things are wet, dry, sticky, warm or cold. In the long run and as they get exposed to things with the same characteristics, children can easily categorise which thing belongs to this group and the other. The same is true when classifying things according to sound, smell and taste.
Important for social skills
Sensory play involves activities which a child can enjoy by himself but can become more interesting when shared with others. This being said, he will be able to develop social skills through this type of play. When they do, they will see how other kids respond to certain materials that they see, touch, taste and hear. Together, they can make new images out of these materials and compare the different shapes and sizes that they form out of it.
Prepares your child for the more complex world later
Sensory play involves activities where one can simply touch an object, sort materials and pinch certain items. It also encourages balance and movement. These are fine motor skills which can be strengthened through play and can be later on used for writing notes, tying one’s shoes, zipping pants and buttoning clothes.
Enhances your child’s language skills
Your child will love the fact that they will be able to explore their surrounding through sensory play. As they get exposed to different things, they become more familiar to the names of such objects. But the activity does not stop up to that point where your child will be able to know the names of these things. It will extend beyond becoming more familiar with the characteristics of these items thus allowing them to describe each item in class with their peers and their teacher. This will then enhance their language skills which is crucial to their development.