Sensory play is for all children, as organizing and learning through stimuli is a key part of understanding the world. Babies and toddlers love to touch and feel everything, and are constantly putting things in their mouths. Choosing the right toys and sensory tools can help them explore the world and offer you a variety of ways to engage with infants and toddlers as they learn.
Why Are Sensory Activities Important for Infants and Toddlers?
Sensory play and using toys designed to engage infants and toddlers are important for developing the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Providing opportunities to explore helps them to develop creative, social, emotional, and physical skills. The use of multiple senses when exploring their environment helps infants retain more information and supports the development of problem-solving and communication skills.
Infant Sensory Toys & Activities
Encouraging sensory play in infancy helps to foster brain development, laying the foundation for learning as they grow. Children of all ages can benefit from engaging in sensory play, and the specialized tools and toys below offer many ways to interact with infants as they learn through sensory experiences.
As young brains develop, adults need to provide infants with lots of opportunities to stimulate and use all their senses. The TOLO Education Baby Large Rattle Set, for infants 3+ months, gives caregivers lots of choices for intentionally playing with the baby.
How to Play: Sing songs while helping the baby hold and keep rhythm with the different sounds each rattle makes. During diapering, allow the baby to hold and explore a rattle while talking about what s/he is doing. While sitting on the floor, hold the baby in your lap and gently help him/her roll a rattle back and forth, talking about all the sounds and colors you’re hearing and seeing. With five rattles to choose from, you can easily have a different shake, rattle, and roll experience each day!
Who doesn’t love a good game of roly-poly? The balls within the Sensory Shapes and Balls Set will provide children ages 6+ months with learning and fun together with you!
How to Play: On a comfortable surface, sit across from the child, choose one ball, and see if you can push it back and forth between you. With your help, the child will discover that some shapes roll easily, while others don’t. As you’re playing, talk about tactile differences, such as smooth and bumpy, or visual differences, such as round and oval. Children who aren’t yet sitting on their own will benefit from exploring the balls with all their senses while being read to, held, or rocked to sleep.
Indoor Sensory Play Ideas for Toddlers
Toddlers are excited to play, and these sensory activities can help them stretch their brains and practice using their senses. Encourage exploration and the development of fine and gross motor skills with these toddler-oriented sensory activities:
Linking, stringing, and connecting activities abound with the Childcraft Toddler Manipulative Set, featuring five types of sensory objects that offer different textures while developing tactile skills. The Brix and Linkets are great for independent time.
How to Play: Caregivers can create color patterns such as ABC Pattern: blue, yellow, red, repeat, or AB Pattern: blue, yellow, blue, yellow, repeat. When finished, encourage the child to share the similarities and differences they see, and then create a pattern of their own. Older toddlers will enjoy working with a friend to build creative structures using the Young Brix while exploring the unique surface texture of each piece. Finally, the smooth Baby Beads make stringing an imaginary necklace, slippery snake, or wiggly worm a calming form of fine-motor learning for a child who may need some quiet time.
Toddlers love to wiggle while they work, and we have a safe seat just for that. The Children’s Factory Cube Chair is perfect for areas that need options. It easily transforms from a 6-inch to a 9-inch seat height and turns into a table when a durable surface is needed.
How to Play: During read-aloud time, line the seats up in a row, forming a train, a bobsled, or a line of ants while reading a corresponding book. The side handles feature sensory bumps which will provide children with sensory input as they strengthen their listening skills during reading. Add extra fun by asking children to shout out or whisper particular sounds heard in the story, or make hand and arm motions similar to what the book’s characters are doing, and then immediately return their fingers to the sensory bumps, praising them for following directions.
Strike up the band with our Edushape Musical Rings, perfect for shaking and dancing with toddlers.
How to Play: Gather in a circle and use the 4 rings to play along with your favorite songs, encouraging children to keep rhythm with the beat. Give each child a ‘solo’ by encouraging them to step to the center of the circle to dance and wiggle while playing their ring. Ask the children to alternate between fast and slow, loud and quiet with you as the conductor, modeling the way. Combine this listening experience with some extra gross-motor skill development by safely marching in a circle or line through the hallway or taking the band outside while singing your favorite songs!
Colors, colors, everywhere! Toddlers aged 2+ will enjoy experimenting with the different shapes, sizes, and colors in the Guidcraft Rainbow Blocks Set.
How to Play: To prompt awareness of shapes, caregivers can ask children to name each shape as they build both upright structures and flat structures, such as on a table-top. To foster a love of science and develop children’s visual and tactile senses, place small, varied-textured objects from nature, such as smooth rocks, wrinkly leaves, and rough acorns, beneath each colored block. Ask children to explain how the object’s color changes and why. Expand further by having children find objects around the room that are also smooth, wrinkly, and rough during an indoor scavenger hunt!
More Infant and Toddler Activities & Learning Tools
If you’re looking for more ways to ramp up engagement and learning opportunities for toddlers and infants, be sure to stop by the Early Childhood category page to see what’s new. Also, visit the online store to shop for hundreds of high-quality products for young learners.
Playing with sensory items is engaging! The following activities are perfect for stimulating infants and toddlers development in a fun, safe and creative manner.