What Are Tactile And Sensory Toys?
It’s important to carefully think about the type of toys you bring into your home, as they are important for children’s development. Instead of crowding your kid’s space with the latest cute stuffed animal, it might be worth exploring how a new sensory toy might benefit their growth. For all children, particularly those with Sensory Processing Disorder or those on the autism spectrum, could benefit a great deal from sensory toys.
These tactile toys are a great way to stimulate one or more senses. A child's imagination is a powerful thing. Providing your child with age-appropriate toys that can help cultivate creativity, hone motor skills and promote function is just one way to help them grow and learn. Toys are an important part of a child's early development, and it's important to find the right fit for their developmental level and personality. They can work wonders to promote function and calm a child. Besides being just plain fun, these thoughtfully crafted toys engage, help build core strength, aid in practicing fine and gross motor skills, impart a sense of calm, and provide an energy release.
BUILD'S AND PROMOTES MOTOR SKILLS & DEVELOPS COGNITIVE GROWTH
Sensory and tactile toys can help your child develop fine motor skills. Fine-motor skills are the ability to make small movements with the hands and wrists, which children are able to develop as they grow. They exert their fine motor skills by tying their shoes, practicing hand-writing and building with blocks. Through play, they will have increased hand-eye coordination. Additionally, sensory play teaches children important gross motor skills, which involve moving large muscles in the arms, legs, and core. These include running, jumping, and crawling.
Asking questions, thinking about how things work, doing experiments and analyzing results are all part of healthy cognitive growth. This is how we learn something new and figure things out. How we problem solve. Using Sensory Play for Children allows for this development in a way that promotes growth while still in the early developmental stages, and supports them in the process.
SOOTHING AND CALMING EFFECT
Sensory toys are a great way to stimulate the senses of a child but children can also use sensory toys to help them calm down. When they are in use, sensory toys impact the sensory system. You might be able to stimulate a child who might otherwise be a little sluggish or disengaged. On the other hand, sensory play can help a child who might have hyperactivity or trouble paying attention to focus.
Our sensory toys come in many different shapes and sizes, but most of them have a few things in common. They can be used to stimulate the child's tactile sense, their sense of hearing, their sense of sight, and even their sense of smell. The toy industry has been using sensory toys for years to help children with developmental delays or disorders. Sensory toys have been shown to help kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, and other disorders that affect how they interact with the world around them.
THE APPEAL OF THE SENSORY TOYS
Through sensory, tactile play with other children, your child will begin developing social skills. They will learn communication skills, problem-solving skills, and learn to adapt to play with others.
3D printed sensory toys provide a form of playful manipulation. This is similar to what one might experience from playing with their fingers and the excitement that comes from collecting different shapes and colors. They’re also good for children because they help improve attention spans and allow kids to play while they wait.
The play is not complicated and is not about achieving any particular result, which may be central to its popularity. Children are busy and stressed out, and fidgets can offer something to do without really doing anything.
At the root of all play is that humans crave tactile engagement, but kids really need it. Those little fidgeters might be tapping into an unconscious need to train their fine motor skills. Historically speaking, humans have spent much of their time on this planet moving around, yet our modern lives demand that we stay still.
Even as children we have incredible hand-eye coordination, we have an incredible sense of touch, and we have these complicated sensory systems which we don’t often engage enough. Giving children the opportunity to play and engage with a variety of moving parts and different shapes will truly help them develop their physical ability to move, communicate, rest, focus and much more!