Tactile Sensory Play

At our house Tactile Sensory Play is a part of daily activity.  It ranges from playing in the dishwater with little cups to play dough to whip cream on the floor to painting the driveway to "cooking" something.  It has to be something that can be touched, smelled and tasted.  It is all going to go in the mouth, on the body and the mess will be glorious.  We play it with each other (or anyone who wants to be messy). 

The ability to process tactile sensations effectively is very important, not only for visual discrimination, motor planning, and body awareness, but also for academic learning, emotional security, and social skills (from one of our favorite books THE OUT-OF-SYNC CHILD HAS FUN, Carol Kranowitz, MA).   

For Espen the benefits are great.  He can feel different textures.  Taste them if he needs to.  Smell them for certain (his sense of smell is one he trusts the most).  See how things splat or fly if he whacks them to hard or sits it down to heavy.  He can pour and measure, push and pull, move or be still with tactile sensations.  We most typically do it with a quiet house so that there are no other distractions. 

There are clearly levels of mess.  And not every day can be a huge disaster.  Today was a mess we have never done before.  I got the idea yesterday when we were baking.  I try to keep us focused on the task at hand.  That itself is very challenging so when baking we stick with it.  He wanted to play in the ingredients.  I made that happen today.  For the low cost of $2 I had a bag of flour and a box of pudding.  After explaining that the 4x4 space that is my kitchen was the limit he was allowed to open and dump them on the floor. 

I can assure you that flour cleans up fairly easily.  It is when water is added that it becomes a bigger mess then even I had anticipated.  But on with the show I say!  So my investment allowed my son to explore the whole mess in any way he needed or wanted.  He kept it within the boundaries (the one handful he tossed at me was so I would play with him).  He helped clean it up as best as he could.  It was a mess I'll be cleaning up for a few days!  But worth it.... he was relatively calm, relaxed, curious and happy.  The inner neat freak in me was having a really hard time but she quieted down and just let him be.... that inner neat freak usually gets pushed down because it is impossible to keep it clean here! 

The hardest part of the whole mess is getting the gunk out of his hair... after a long shower and several scrubbings and a long bath and several more, he still has flour paste in his curls.  I fear the only way to get it all out is a hair cut.  But I will try tomorrow once again and he has a swim lesson so we shall see!  

I will most definitely do this activity again... he enjoyed it and I had fun too... I'd perhaps do it outside on a warm day or in the kitchen again but without any water.  And I'd try adding several boxes of jell-o in a cook color.  Or use sugar instead of flour.