Here are some insights to encourage the best out of your Neuro-diverse child's development and growth so they are best able to cope with life’s myriad of complex social situations, interactions and challenges.
Their motor and language skills,cognitive growth, and social interactions all play an important role in developing their personal growth, and Sensory play through sensory toys are a great resource to encourage this.
Sensory play allow focus to be directed to two lesser known sensory systems, namely, proprioceptive and vestibular systems. The proprioceptive system is responsible for the spatial awareness of the body, and the vestibular system is actively involved in activities related to balance and movement.
This article offers some developmental benefits your child can gain from engaging in sensory play, encouraging further cognitive growth and brain development. You can also take advice from take a seat for helping your children in engaging in developmental activities.
1. Language Skills
Your child has the opportunity to develop language skills and the ability to express themselves through expressing their experiences with engaging in sensory toys. This engagement can inspire awareness and articulation, encouraging the use of descriptive words or sounds to express their feelings, and how they’re interacting with the toy.
2. Fine Motor Skills
Activities involving tactile play help build a child's fine motor skills, helping scaffold their learning towards other life skills like writing or hand play, brushing hair, and teeth, and tying shoes, etc. This play activates small muscle groups, training them to perform fine motor tasks autonomously and with ease through repetition and achieving successful coordinated outcomes. Sensory Toys such as gadget blocks, covered with switches, lock and keys, puzzles or shoe laces are great fun resources to encourage children with dyspraxia to engage in fine motor skill play with confidence.
Sensory play increases the ability to coordinate movements. Much of sensory play focuses on building, pouring and mixing involving cognitive judgement and decision making.
Try giving your child play dough, stretchy stress balls, or silicone texture toys to play with and polish their fine motor skills while they engage in fun tasks that encourage them to develop further hobbies or interests. For those sensory seekers or avoiders, it could be an opportunity to immerse or to overcome positive or negative perceived sensory stimuli.
3. Gross Motor Skills
Activities that involve using larger muscles, like arms and legs, including their core, can help develop their gross motor skills. Gross motor skills include crawling, running, jumping and walking.
Play involving sensory swings or balls is a great way for your child to develop proprioceptive balance in coordination with their major muscle groups. There’s much pleasure to be had in mastering their bodies combined coordination and seeking that all important sensory stimuli; soaring and swinging is great fun, learning the bodies movement of weight, inertia and kinetics.
4. Cognitive Growth
Cognitive growth encompasses your child's ability to think, solve problems, analyse situations and identify cues in social interactions. You can find sensory toys to help with cognitive development Life presents daily challenges and developing problem.
Solving skills and coping strategies are essential for them to manage life's routines and unexpected outcomes. Cognitive growth in sensory play develops your child's critical thinking skills to further adapt, learn and gain confidence. Gaining confidence encourages perseverance to gain mastery over small tasks. With sensory play, they are training to manoeuvre through unseen consequences.
5. Calming Effect
Children have tons of energy and adrenaline and sometimes when over stimulated, its great to have activities to calm down and relax. Sensory toys are an appropriate resource to help provide calm and focus, such as in the classroom or before bedtime at home.
Sensory Hug boats, Sensory Black out tents, sensory wobble cushions, weighted lap pads and weighted shoulder huggers are a handful of useful sensory tools that can assist the child in maintaining relaxation, calming anxiety, recovering from a meltdown, or having an outlet to Stim without being disruptive to others. Having a dedicated sensory space, filled with sensory tactile cushions and colourful toys can prove a ‘safe haven’ for children to withdraw to when distressed, and emerge in a better mood, ready to re engage a little later.
Summary
Your child can develop language skills and learn to be articulate and expressive by experiencing sensory play. Tactile play can help build their small muscle groups and coordination for fine motor skills development. Sensory play that helps in building larger muscles like the limbs and core including walking, running, jumping, etc. Sensory play is a great way to hone their cognitive skills and gain critical thinking and problem solving abilities. Use of sensory toys and play can have a calming effect on children who are hyperactive and stimulated so they can more easily focus, and can also be used as a resource to control appropriate behaviour at home or in the classroom.
We hope this article proves insightful and enables your children to have the ideal learning experience. Thank you for reading!
Author bio:
Jennifer Roy is a content writer and researcher, who has a thirst for exploring new and intriguing topics. Always a fan of writing as a creative expression, she also enjoys taking part in writing fiction.
Outside reading and writing, you’ll find her spending time with her cat, Lola.