Demystifying sensory play, messy play and more!

As a parent of two young children myself, I know that the world of sensory play, messy play and trying to figure out what’s best for my baby can be very over whelming! Heavy marketing campaigns from brands will really have you believe that you need to spend lots of money on expensive toys to help your baby develop. They use lots of scientific buzz words to hook us in, but we really don’t need to do this. I’m going to simplify it all for you and show that actually, sensory play for your baby can be free and you can do it right from the comfort of your own home.

Sensory experiences happen throughout your little one’s day. For example, listening to some music, playing a tickling game, smelling freshly cut fruits, exploring household objects – it’s all a sensory experience and benefits your little one as they develop.

Sensory play is when we set up a specific activity or play experience to appeal to a particular sense to help them develop their learning and understanding of the world in a multi-sensory way. The goal is to stimulate the senses through a range of textures, sights, sounds, mixtures and tastes. By stimulating the senses, babies become more aware of their motor skills, cognitive skills and establish a sense of cause and effect. As your baby grows, sensory play can be used to help them to learn, as research shows when we learn through doing and appealing to our senses we are more likely to remember.

Messy play is a term that is generally used to describe a type of sensory play whereby the medium the children explore can create a lot of mess!

As a parent, to really support your baby’s development your goal is to stimulate their senses and therefore brain development through a mix of day to day sensory experiences and sensory or messy play set ups. Mess can be triggering for many parents and so if this isn’t a play type that will work for you then don’t panic. It’s better to engage with your baby in a way you are happy with, as they will respond to this better. But, if you are keen to give messy play a go then here a few ideas to get you started:

And if messy play isn’t really your thing, here are a few ideas of sensory play set ups to you could try where they don’t have to get messy but will still have fun exploring:

Remember, neither sensory or messy play have to be expensive or taxing - and we’re only talking about short periods of play at a time, so don’t think every moment of waking time should be spent on sensory experiences. Take it easy, keep it fun, and just enjoy watching your little one explore the world around them.