While their siblings and friends might be attending school or daycare, some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might not have any experience in a traditional classroom. We understand it can be tricky to keep your neuro-diverse child motivated, educated, and entertained. Play with sensory tools allows kids to develop their creativity while enhancing cognitive and functional skills.
For children on the spectrum, sensory play can be especially beneficial. By participating in sensory play activities, children with ASD, sensory processing disorder (SPD), and other challenges with stimulation might be able to train their brains to alter their response. By doing this, they can begin to strengthen self-regulation and help them cope with reactions to touch, sound, scent, sight, movement, and even taste.
Here are our top activities and sensory products to help develop fine motor skills.
Putty or play-dough
Tactile and fun to play with, encourage your child to squeeze, stretch, pinch and roll the material. We love Crazy Aaron’s thinking putty for those 3 years and over. Have your child try to cut or squeeze the dough with scissors or tweezers from our Fine Motor Toolset.
Painting
Painting can help improve hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity. Painting with Little Brian Chunkie Paint Sticks is a mess-free way of painting giant size and outdoor paintings. These easy-grip paint sticks are perfect for little hands.
Sorting shapes
Learning to identify and sort shapes relies on a range of cognitive and functional skills. Our Calm and Breezy Rolling Shape Sorter helps develop dexterity and coordination and is an early learning toy that encourages colour and shape recognition. Our Junior Rainbow Pebbles Early Construction set also helps children of all ages identify different shapes, colours, and sizes.
Counting
Using an abacus to help your child learn to count is fun, calming, and promotes fine motor skill development. This Calm and Breezy Abacus is an abacus with a difference – its solid natural timber base with arched wires threaded with timber beads is finished in subtly-toned non-toxic paint. It will help develop fine motor skills and facilitate learning to count, add and subtract.
Water and Sand play
Sand and water are tactile, soothing, and fun. This Sand & Water Fine Motor Set helps kids discover new ways to learn. This pack encourages fine motor skill development and includes a squeezy bottle, spinner, wavy dropper, and scooper.
Problem-solving
Take your kids on a learning journey by helping them solve problems. The Mamagenius’ Lock Activity Box features 10 coloured doors with a variety of locks. Toddlers will be absorbed in a journey of discovery as their fine motor skills are challenged. This box is great for free play exploration but also offers a fantastic opportunity for parents to get involved with the fun by asking questions like, “Can you unbolt the red door and put X toy in the box?”.
New! Sister Sensory’s Gift Registry
Sister Sensory now has a Gift Registry for our wonderful sensory toys and tool for kids! This fabulous new feature means you can curate a collection of gifts perfectly matched to your child’s unique needs and requirements. Create your first list today.
