Everything your child touches, tastes, hears, smells, and eats helps create new neural connections. As your child grows, input from sensory play helps to form their brain’s architecture. So bring on the finger paints, dig into that sensory bin, and jump in those mud puddles: Sensory play experiences like these aren’t just fun, they’re actually building blocks for your child’s brain.

In this article:

• What is sensory play?
• What are the benefits of sensory play?
• What are the different types of sensory play?
• What is a sensory bin?
• Sensory playtime & activities by age
• Sensory play for babies
• Sensory play for toddlers & preschoolers
• What if my child doesn’t like sensory play?

What is sensory play?

Life is experienced through our senses, so technically speaking, all play is sensory play 🙂 But the term “sensory play” is generally used to describe play with high-intensity input to one or several of the body’s primary senses. These include taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight, as well as three lesser-known sensory systems: vestibular, proprioceptive, and interoception. Your vestibular sense—sometimes known as your balance sense—governs how your body moves. Proprioception is your body’s sense of itself in physical space, and interoception is your internal sense of your body.  

Sensory play is often synonymous with messy play because activities that stimulate your child’s senses often involve a lot of hands-on experimentation—squishing shaving cream, splashing in the tub, playing with food. Embracing a little bit of mess is all part of the experience with some types of sensory play. That said, many sensory activities—from listening to music to swinging at the playground—can be mess-free.

RELATED: 8 playground activities that build your toddler’s balance and coordination 

What are the benefits of sensory play?

Sensory play helps your child’s brain piece together different types of sensory input, creating the neural connections that wire your child’s brain in its own unique way. 

Your child’s senses aren’t fully developed or well integrated at birth. Through experience, each individual sense gets more refined, sending increasingly accurate information to the brain. Meanwhile, the brain gets better at putting all that information together, integrating information from the individual sensory systems into a more complete, multi-sensory experience. This is where sensory play really shines: Through play, your baby’s senses knit together information.

The benefits of sensory play touch on almost every aspect of your child’s development, including fine motor skills, gross motor skills, cognitive skills, social-emotional skills, language, and learning. Here are just a few of the ways sensory play benefits your baby or toddler: 

Cognitive development
Every time your child takes in information through their senses, their brain begins the process of recognizing, associating, judging, and responding. This is how crucial neural connections are formed. Paying attention to important sensory input while tuning out unimportant sensory input is also key for learning.

Language development
You might think your child picks up words primarily through hearing, but research suggests that language development may involve other senses as well. Studies find that labeling an object as your child handles it can help them connect what they have in their hands to the word for that object. Speech experts call these “right label at the right time” moments, and sensory play provides lots of opportunities for this kind of language learning. While holding and interacting with finger paint, mud, or modeling dough, your child has a multi-sensory experience that helps them learn new words. 

Fine motor skills
As your child touches, squeezes, pinches, pulls, and presses sensory materials like modeling dough during play, they strengthen the muscles in their hands and fingers. With stronger finger muscles and improved hand coordination, your child may be better prepared for activities like handwriting, tying shoes, or even playing a musical instrument one day. In addition to muscle strengthening, fine motor sensory play can help the brain coordinate grasping and object handling skills, as your child experiments with using different levels of force through their hands and fingers.

Social-emotional skills
How the brain receives and interprets information from the senses is fundamental to a child’s sense of safety in the world. Sensory play offers opportunities to experience new sensations as positive instead of threatening. By satisfying your child’s need for sensory input, sensory play can also help reduce challenging behaviors—for example, movement and muscle work during outside play might help your child follow a “No jumping on the couch” or “Stay in your seat at dinner” rule.

What are the different types of sensory play?

Tactile or touch play

Your baby’s sense of touch is fully developed at birth but hasn’t yet been integrated with other sensory channels. This type of sensory integration is needed for their brain to fully understand an experience. 

From squishy slime to prickly pine cones, many kinds of sensory play involve exploring new substances and textures with their hands. But tactile sensory play doesn’t always happen this way—your child also has many touch receptors on their mouth and lips. 

Starting around 3 to 4 months of age, babies mouth objects because they don’t yet have the dexterity to explore with their hands. Your baby’s brain also responds more strongly to stimulation of their mouth or lips. They can learn about the size, texture, and shape of an object by inspecting it with their mouth. Children gain so much sensory information from their mouths, in fact, that until about 15 months—and sometimes even longer—their first instinct is to mouth objects. Mouthing helps your baby learn to speak, feed, and even self-soothe. 

Visual play

At birth, your baby’s vision isn’t as advanced as yours. It takes time for your baby’s eyes and brain to coordinate well. In the first several months of life, sensory play may involve introducing high-contrast images and geometric shapes such as the Black & White Card Sets. High-contrast images can help your baby focus while providing stimulation to support their visual and cognitive development.

Once your child’s vision is more highly developed, other types of sensory play can stimulate their visual sense. As your child approaches toddlerhood, sensory activities that expose them to a variety of colors, such as colorful modeling dough or finger paints, can support their visual development and color identification skills.  

RELATED: The best high-contrast images for newborns [free printables]

Auditory play

While your baby’s hearing is well-developed at birth, newborns have not yet learned how to “track” sounds or make the connection between a sound and its origin. Auditory sensory play in the early months may be as simple as playing soft, soothing sounds to calm crying or ringing the Rolling Bell and moving it to see if your baby can track the sound. Contrary to popular belief, listening to Beethoven won’t make your baby smarter—but it may be an effective way to calm them. While songs with an upbeat tempo and words can overwhelm the brain, the slow, tranquil rhythms of classical music are perfect for winding down.

As your child matures, you can introduce ways for them to experiment with sounds during playtime. Simple activities like banging blocks together or filling a cup with toys, then shaking them to discover a new sound, can be fascinating auditory input for your child.

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Olfactory or smelling play

Your baby’s sense of smell is impressive. One of the primary ways your newborn learns about the world in the first few weeks is through their sense of smell. In fact, they can recognize you by scent long before they can tell who you are by sight. Over time, your baby forms strong cognitive associations between your scent and the love and attention you give. 

In the toddler years, your child’s sense of smell continues to be an important way to learn about the world. Try adding strong-smelling herbs or spices to your child’s sensory bin or finger paints. Your toddler might notice the smell of lavender, cinnamon, or lemon right away while playing.

Gustatory or tasting play

Even when your baby was in the womb, they could taste flavors from their mother’s diet through the amniotic fluid. At birth, your baby can taste major flavors and may have less sensitivity to saltiness. Mouthing and tasting objects is one of your baby’s first experiences of sensory play. 

As a toddler, your child will gradually stop putting everything in their mouth as a form of exploration. However, you can still encourage your child’s taste discovery. Meal time may become a natural form of taste exploration as you introduce new foods to your child’s palate. Try to expose your child to a wide variety of tastes and textures of foods. This variety not only serves as a form of sensory stimulation but may also encourage them to eat a wider range of foods.

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Movement play

When your child explores different body movements, this too can be a form of sensory play. Many types of movement offer vestibular and proprioceptive input. Your child’s vestibular system helps them balance, coordinate motions, and plan their movements. At-home activities that support and stimulate the vestibular system are often ones that involve a lot of physical movement through space, such as:

• spinning in a chair
• balancing on a curb or balance beam made of tape on the floor
• swinging on a playground swing
• climbing through an indoor play tunnel or playground tunnel

Another of your child’s “hidden” senses is the proprioceptive system. It helps your child understand their body’s position in space and in relation to other objects, as well as how body parts relate to one another. Your child uses this sense when they determine how high to jump to reach the hanging bar at the playground or how to adjust the force of their hands when touching something fragile like a glass or a tiny kitten. Simple activities that stimulate your child’s proprioceptive system can often be done outdoors since they include heavy work like pushing and pulling. Here are a few ideas for sensory activities that provide proprioceptive input:

• climbing ladders at the playground
• carrying buckets of sand
• using a rope to play tug-of-war with friends
• hanging on monkey bars

Unlike the other sensory systems that help your child’s body respond to the environment, your child’s interoception sense is all about how they determine what’s happening within their body. This sense is what helps your child know when they’re hungry, tired, or in pain, as well as their body’s experience of emotions. Although this sense is internally focused, there are some activities that can help your child learn to “listen to their body.” This is an important skill for managing their own self-care needs. Understanding how your body responds to strong emotions may also help children in learning to regulate their emotions. A few activities that can help your child develop a stronger sense of these internal experiences include:

• yoga or mindfulness training with an emphasis on breathing techniques
• activities such as jumping, swinging or running “wake up” your child’s sensory systems and get your child’s heart pumping. Helping your child notice how their body feels different when they do these activities versus others may help them become more internally aware.

RELATED: Sensory play: What it does for your child’s brain

What is a sensory bin?

Sensory bins can be a fun, hands-on way for children to explore many of their senses. They can be easy to create—use a big bin like a flat plastic storage container, and fill it with items that stimulate your child’s senses, like dry rice or beans, uncooked dry pasta, or even water. Add in some good-smelling items like lavender, lemon juice, or cinnamon sticks for a little extra olfactory input. Include some tools that your child can use to scoop and pour… and that’s all it takes to create a sensory bin for your toddler or preschooler to explore. 

More sensory bin ideas:

Kitchen-themed sensory bin: Fill a plastic bin with dry beans as well as spoons, cups and pitchers. Explore scooping, pouring, and the concept of different volumes with the beans. Stir and spill, drop and dive your hands into the beans together. Talk about the sounds you can create—notice differences between beans poured into a metal cup versus a plastic one—and which cups can hold the most beans.

Animal bath sensory bin: Gather the animal figures from the Montessori Animal Match Game. Fill one bin with dirt and the other with just enough water to cover your child’s animal toys. Show your child how to get each animal messy in the dirt bin and then how to clean it in the water bin. Add a brush or sponges to the water bin to help your child scrub their animals clean. Encourage them to repeat the cleaning process with other animals.

Sensory bin sorting: Combine fine motor work and color matching with a sensory bin scoop-and-sort game. Add water and small floating objects in an assortment of colors—like plastic blocks, foam shapes, or flowers—to a large, shallow bin. Give your child a slotted spoon and cups that are color coordinated with the items in the bin, then show them how to use the spoon to scoop items from the bin into the corresponding cup.

Please supervise your baby at all times during these activities, since small items can become choking hazards. Put them safely away when play is done. Remember to supervise your child at all times around water, as it is possible for them to drown in less than an inch of water. 

Sensory playtime & activities by age

Sensory play for babies

When first introducing sensory exploration to your baby, start slow. The first four weeks of your baby’s life are mostly a transition time between the womb and the world. Your little one emerges from a calm, quiet, cozy place into an environment with a lot of noise and brightness—that’s plenty of sensory input in itself. It will take your baby a few months to learn how to process it all. 

While their brain matures, try to keep their surroundings tranquil and soothing. Give your baby some quiet time during the day, which will allow them the chance to open their eyes, take in sounds, and slowly absorb their surroundings—your newborn learns a lot during these quiet moments. 

With every touch of their fingers, sniff of their nose, or sight of a new color, your baby’s senses are sparking new connections so they can understand the world more fully. Sensory play for babies is more than just fun; it’s a multi-modal learning experience. Here are a few ideas for introducing babies to sensory play:

Baby massage: If your baby can tolerate massage well, this can be a soothing form of sensory play and bonding with your baby. Use a light touch with coconut oil or another baby-safe oil. Massage for babies is most calming when you start from the center of their bodies and work your way out, with a gentle touch. Begin with your baby’s chest, then move out to legs and arms in a smooth motion. Your loving touch is what matters here—you don’t have to be an expert on infant massage.

Bathtime sensory play: Bathtime is a perfect opportunity for sensory play. Notice how your baby responds to the different sensory experiences of water and washcloth. Move slowly to allow them time to adjust to each new experience.

Tracking sounds with auditory play: Each of the Sensory Links has a high-contrast pattern and makes a unique sound, so you can use them to stimulate both visual and auditory senses for tracking. Place your baby in a comfortable position on their back and hold one of the links about 8 to 12 inches away from their eyes, then manipulate it to create both sound and movement. Once your baby seems focused on the plaything, slowly move it across their field of vision. Change to a different link with a different sound and play again.  

Body awareness sensory play: Your baby may still be learning where their body ends and the rest of the world begins. Tactile stimulation can help them mentally map different parts of their body. Gently rub the Sensory Links on your baby’s arms, legs and belly to help bring your baby’s attention to each body part.

Sensory play for toddlers & preschoolers

Sensory activities for toddlers and preschoolers take on a whole new meaning as your child can interact more fully with different materials than they could as an infant. Finger paints, banging drums, sensory bins, and yes, even playing with food can all be wonderful sensory activities for toddlers and preschoolers. These types of sensory experiences are not only fun but can help your child learn colors and practice their fine motor skills. This is also a perfect age to introduce sensory tools like the Calming Circle to help teach your child strategies to regulate their strong emotions.

Shaving cream play (15 to 18 months): If your child loves getting messy during sensory play, then shaving cream or whipped cream can be a fun tactile experience. Fill a shallow dish or cookie sheet with shaving cream or whipped cream and allow your child to discover its smooth, fluffy texture with their hands. To add a bit of color discovery, mix in a drop or two of food coloring to part of the shaving cream. Your child can then experiment with how different colors mix to form new colors. If your child is hesitant to touch the shaving cream, give them a popsicle stick to play with it.

Olfactory-focused sensory bin (16 to 18 months): Sensory bins don’t have to be just for tactile stimulation. Try engaging your child’s sense of smell with a sensory bin focused on foods or herbs that have distinctive odors. Place small amounts of fragrant ingredients into small bowls inside of a flat bin. Items like lavender, lemon, coffee beans, essential oils or herbs can be good choices. Model for your child how you pick up each bowl to smell the item. Describe the smell to your child, “That lemon smells so fresh.” 

What if my child doesn’t like sensory play?

Every child is unique when it comes to sensory play. Although some children enjoy getting messy and touching different materials with their hands, other children may not. These sensory preferences are all part of your child’s unique sensory integration process. Research suggests that children and adults each have a type of sensory profile. Some children seek out sensory stimulation and may gravitate toward particular types of sensory input, whether it’s tactile, auditory, or movement. Other children do not need as much sensory stimulation and may even find it overwhelming. For these children, some types of sensory play may cause them to feel uncomfortable.

If your child fits into this category, start slow with sensory play. Learning how much and which types of sensory input feel comfortable for your child may take some trial and error. Try different sensory activities with your child and see how they respond. If they seem very uncomfortable with certain activities, it may be best to try something different. However, for some activities, you may be able to modify them to make them more approachable for your child. For example, if shaving cream or mud is part of the sensory play but your child is uncertain about touching it with their hands, you can suggest they use a popsicle stick or paint brush to interact with the materials. This may offer them just enough sensory input without becoming overstimulating.