Sensory Play Ideas for Kids with Sensory Processing Issues

Judy Benz Duncan, Occupational Therapist

Children learn through fun and playtime experiences. Guided sensory play time is a great way for a child to explore their world, their surroundings, interact with others, develop creative and abstract thoughts, develop their physical skills, work on the ability to communicate their feeling, thoughts, and emotions, and well, just have fun in the process!

Therapeutic Interactive Story Play

Combining sensory play with imaginative and interactive story play opens up a whole new world of possibilities, learning, and growth opportunities for any child. The use of Therapeutic Interactive Story Play helps to guide and promote specific learning and developmental skills, tied with communication and language development for all children, with or without sensory processing dysfunction.

Sensory Play and Developmental Skill Development

For those who want to incorporate “sensory playtime” into their child’s day, there are some great ways to plan activities and play experiences that also focus on the key developmental skills which include:

• attention, focus, and impulse control

• cognition and understanding

• communication and language

• creativity and abstract thought

• appropriate expression of emotions

• gross and fine motor skill performance

• self-awareness and body image

• solo to interactive and social skills

• functional sensory integration tolerance

Sensory Play for SPD

For children with sensory processing disorders, to help in the set up and development of sensory playtime, pay attention to, and keep track of the activities, environments, and sensory input that you have found to successfully grab your child’s attention or interest, instead of cause frustration, agitation, or behavioral issues. Sensory playtime will help promote so many developmental skills if it’s based in “play” and “fun.”

Use activities, modify surroundings, and have a “back-up” plan to help your child feel comfortable and able to better handle, or tolerate, the situation at hand. For those who has a child with SPD, a back-up plan is highly recommended, for as we all know, what works today may not work tomorrow!

Sensory playtime works best when a child has a variety of experiences throughout the day. Sensory play generally works best when they include:

• active, gross, movement based play

• quiet and more creative play periods of self-directed play

• pretend play / imaginative playtime

• play time with educationally based games, activities, reading/listening time

• sensory based play, or taking part in sensory activities

• and just a little bit of passive play that includes tv, videos, electronic games

Planning for Sensory Playtime Needs Service Provider Guidance

What works for one child, may make another child’s behaviors and reactions worse. Information and basic activity ideas are presented here, however, in order to address your child’s needs, evaluate for the outcomes you are looking for, and for direct guidance and direction through the entire process, discuss and plan with your OT/PT/ST and services providers.

There is so much more to providing sensory playtime and sensory-impacting experiences than just providing “random” sensory input or encouraging a child to participate in sensory play activities.

Knowing the how’s and why’s of sensory playtime is essential to the success, safety, and carryover of the sensory strategies being used. Having guidance as to how to modify and make changes as your child experiences changes will often make the difference for you and your child.

Sensory Play and Interactive Play Ideas and Activities

Neuro-typical children naturally seek out a variety of proprioceptive, vestibular, visual, auditory, smell, and tactile sensory input on a daily basis. Being able to experience a variety of sensory input usually allows a child with sensory issues to tolerate, and regulate their daily challenges with sensory integration.

The ideas and activities that follow can all be part of sensory playtime.

Several of the activities have active links to other OT blogs on TheraPlay4Kids with a whole set of additional activities you may choose to refer to.

o   Body Awareness / Proprioceptive Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o Jumping activities – hopscotch, mini-trampoline, bounce house, jumping-jacks, leap frog, and so on

o   Sensory Gonge Activities (CLICK & GO to read more about this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o   Sense of Movement and Balance: Development of a Child’s Vestibular System (CLICK & GO!)  LOTS OF IDEAS HERE!

o   Activities that get them upside down – hang from playground equipment, monkey bars, do somersaults, roller-coaster rides

o   Swinging activities – on the playground, swinging from monkey bars, swinging a gym rope, sensory swings, swings that move front to back as well as side-to-side

o   Rolling activities – roll down a hill (grass or snow), roll across the room, roll themselves up in a blanket

o   Spinning activities - amusement park rides that spin, use of a spin-disc, gonge top, sensory spinners, skating spins, sit-and-spin, run around in circles arms out, pretend play airplane soaring through the sky

o   Auditory/Hearing Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o   Heavy push/pull activities – carry weighted boxes, move a basket of wet laundry, help push a shopping cart, help vacuum, help scrub the floor, hang and pull themselves from a monkey bar, and so on 

o   Heavy Work (CLICK & GO for activities and ideas for use of heavy work, on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o   Squish time activities – squish under big cushions, roll up in a blanket

o   Tactile/Touch Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o   Texture / Taste Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)   Try foods that include different textures, flavors, and temperatures; try drinks that are smooth, carbonated/ bubbly, warm, flavored, icy

o   Edible / Taste Friendly Sensory Slime (CLICK & GO for more on this as well as lots of recipes on TheraPlay4Kids.com) 

o   Play with various textures such as playdough, slime, shaving cream, dry rice or noodles, sensory sand, craft materials, and so on

o   Outside texture walks – try walking barefoot through the grass, sand, water

o Pretend Play Activities (CLICK & GO!) Lots of great ideas on TheraPlay4Kids.com

o   Make a Sensory Light Box at Home (CLICK & GO for DIY info on TheraPlay4Kids)

o   Messy Play Activities and Ideas (CLICK & GO to read more about this on TheraPlay4Kids.com) Never force a child who is unwilling to touch messy or “icky” substances. Let them use a paintbrush, stick, gloves, a toy, or play with item inside a zip lock type of bag.

o   Vision/Visual Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o   Olfactory / Smell Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o  Taste Testing Sensory Box (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com)

o  Flashlight Seek and Find Activities (CLICK & GO for a fun idea!)

o  Chase bubbles, clapping, poking, and kicking as they float by. Try to do this where they have enough room to run and move around to avoid knocking things over or bumping into objects or walls. (CLICK & GO for blog on this on TheraPlay4Kids.com) 

o   Set up obstacle courses for the child to go over, under, around and in between objects. This is a great way to get your child to move and maneuver through a variety of spaces and changes in position.

o   Put on some energized dance music and do some crazy fun dance moves around the room. Get creative and let the music do the “talking” through your body movements.

o   Ask your child to lie on their back on a large piece of brown wrapping paper or opened up big cardboard box, and draw around them, making their outline on the paper. Have your child draw on features and clothes to the outline and name the body parts while they are doing this. Let them get as creative as they want. Hang on the wall to let the see a life-size “them.”

o Hide the Object Games - Hide different soft items or toys around the room and ask the child to find them. You can hide items under cushions, behind a chair, in a low cupboard, under their bedspread, in a box, etc.

o Music Themed Body Part Awareness Games – play a game of “Simon Says” directing your child to touch different parts of their body. Try “Dance the Hokey Pokey” reinforcing right and left sides of the body, or sing and follow “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” song.  What other songs do you know?

o Target Games - Examples include throwing bean bags (pick them up from left and throw to the right). Throw soft balls, bean bags, or toys into hoops, buckets or standing open bags. Throw balls or ring darts, at the target bucket from various distances. Use light to weighted items. These activities work on balance, proprioception, eye-hand skills, perceptual, and coordination skills, body awareness, and the sequence of movement patterning.

o Tug of war with just you or with a group of kids – if you don’t have a rope you can use a rolled up sheet, a pool noodle, a bungee type of cord, and so on – each one gives its own type of sensory stimulation – change it up for varied experiences!

Other Important Sensory Play Ideas

• Provide a play space with the appropriate interactive toys and games

• Provide games, books, toys, that are age appropriate and not to frustrating or challenging for your child – some challenge is good, but if they cannot figure it out or make it work, well then it’s probably not the right choice

• Turn off the TV and other background distractions during playtime

• During pretend play and creative play, try to let your child be the leader and make their own story or play ideas come to life

• Childproof and make safe the area they will be playing in

• Praise any and all efforts when difficult tasks are completed!

• Get excited to play next to them or with them!

• Remember this is PLAY time – so have FUN!

For more ideas or assistance in making sensory play time work, talk with your child’s service providers – they can help modify, adapt, or give suggestions on how to make changes that will be the most effective for your child.

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