Children develop sensory and motor skills at different rates and at slightly different times, and a wide variety of sensory activities can help children develop these essential skills. These activities benefit young children who struggle to acquire these skills and have trouble with critical tasks like moving objects with their fingertips.
What is meant by sensory skills and motor skills?
Motor skills refer to the movements and actions of the muscles and are categorized into two groups. One category is gross motor skills, which require large muscle groups to perform tasks like walking, balancing and crawling. On the other hand, fine motor skills need small muscle groups to pick up or hold a pencil.
Sensory skills refer to vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. It also includes vestibular skills required for balance, head position, and proprioception.
Activities to Help Develop Children’s Sensory and Motor Skills
Gross Motor Skills
Children can help parents rake leaves, shovel snow, collect broken sticks and branches in their yard and place them in a pile. You can also ask your child to help you clean and rearrange items in your kitchen cupboard, and you can dance and learn music to support your child in developing and refining their gross motor skills. Children enjoy helping with chores when they are young, which is a great way to build their motor skills.
You can have a lot of fun with your child, and you can consider a delightful indoor activity called paper plate skating. It is a straightforward and enjoyable activity requiring two or four paper plates. Stand on two paper plates and skate across the floor! If your child prefers to use four paper plates, pretend to be an animal, place one plate under each hand and one under each foot and move like a cat, dog, or tiger. You can also get your child to decorate or colour their plates.
Sensory Skills
Involving your child in daily family life and giving them specific responsibilities effectively ensures your child’s sensory and motor skills are on track. Give them opportunities to practice and refine their skills in a fun and engaging manner, and they will not only have a great time but also develop sensory skills and feel more confident.
A sensory activity is anything that involves the five senses, which are tasting, touching, hearing, sight and smelling. These kinds of activities can be messy, but they are highly effective, engaging, and fun. They are also straightforward to put together, and kids will enjoy any or all of the following:
Rice bin activity.
You will need a plastic storage tub, coloured rice, cookie-cutter shapes, a funnel or two, some pots, and some spoons. Encourage your child to use the scoops to fill the cookie-cutter shapes with rice and then carefully level off the surface. You can also ask them to pour the rice through a funnel into a bowl and transfer it from one shape to another.
Pipe cleaners and pasta.
Children can use pipe cleaners to thread through a colander, and pasta can be incorporated to make jewelry. Children can make necklaces or bracelets and will have a lot of fun while developing their sensory skills.
Oil and water sensory bags.
You will need a freezer bag, baby oil, water, food colouring and duct tape. Put a quarter of a cup of oil in the bag, add water and food colouring and seal the bag. Leave a little air in, but not too much to help avoid the bag from popping. You can add leaves or small flowers to the bag for interest. The fun idea is to draw a smiley face on the bag using permanent markers and include every feature except the eyes. Place googly eyes inside the bag and get your child to push the googly eyes into position to make a happy smiley face.
Bake gingerbread cookies.
The kitchen is a great place to work on sensory activities with your child. Baking is a fun and highly engaging activity you can do together and involves pouring, spooning, measuring, mixing and taste testing, all of which are fantastic for developing sensory skills.
Making gingerbread cookies involves all five senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight. You will need:
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- One egg
- 1/2 cup molasses
To make the cookies, mix the flour, salt, ginger, cloves, baking soda, cocoa powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Have your child smell each ingredient individually as it goes in, and in a separate bowl, beat softened butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add the egg and molasses, and talk to your child about the mixture and its appearance. Discuss the smell and texture; add half of the dry mixture and beat until combined, then add the other half.
Let your child scoop out the mixture, place it on a suitable tray and allow the cookie dough to chill for 2 hours.
Roll out the cookie dough to ¼ inch thick on a lightly floured board and use cookie cutters to cut out the dough. Let your child press each out and place the cookies directly onto a baking tray. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes, and talk to your child about the smell of the cookies as they bake.
Decorate as desired after the cookies have cooled, eat them, and enjoy them!
A reminder:
However, in order to be mindful, we do not encourage the use of food in sensory activities, as they can be quite wasteful. We encourage the use of expired food products, e.g. substituting rice with expired lentils or pasta. At Angelic Treasure Christian Daycare, we encourage sustainable practices even at play to avoid generating unnecessary waste.
Looking for a Daycare? Look No Further!
Do you want your child to develop their sensory and motor skills? Angelic Treasures Christian Daycare (ATCC Corp) is a beautiful place for your child to learn and grow. Our daycare is a warm, friendly and fun environment, and our programs will help your child thrive. If you are looking for a daycare in the Mississauga, Newmarket or Guelph areas, contact us today to learn about our registration process.