Holiday Shopping | Special Needs Essentials Blog

Why is sensory play important to early childhood development?

Like most adults, children learn best and retain the most information when they engage their senses. Many of our favorite childhood memories are associated with one or more of our senses: the smell of a summer rainstorm or a song you sang with your family. Now, when your nose and ears are stimulated with those familiar smells and sounds, your brain triggers a flashback memory to those memories.

Sensory toys for children with special needs help teach hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive growth and social interaction. Sensory toys are not specially geared towards a particular age group. Rather, they are focused on the developmental level of the toy, not the specific age of the child.

Because specific developmental needs of each child varies, sensory toys designed for a certain age can be tailored to the specific need at hand. For instance, older children with autism can derive great benefits from toys that are designed for a younger child, like blocks or balls. By giving children the opportunity to investigate materials with no preconceived knowledge, you’re helping them develop and refine their cognitive, social, emotional, physical, creative and linguistic skill sets.

Many children with special needs can be less responsive to sensation. These sensory seekers benefit from toys that provide an intense experience with touch, texture, sound, pressure, light and balance. Sensory toys respond to a child’s actions. They offer feedback, like light and sound, that can help focus attention, soothe anxiety and decrease hyperactivity.

For sensory seekers, we offer a wide range of toys that provide a intense stimulation. These toys offer light, sound, varied textures, and vivid colors to provide a safe sensory experience. Toys that rock, spin, move, balance, and bounce are part of the sensory toy category. Others toys will encourage a child to move, balance and build. Here’s our Top Toys for Sensory Play.

Sensory Balls: Oddballs

What do you call four unique balls that come in gorgeous patterns and colors? Oddballs, of course! Perfect to bounce, kick, squeeze, roll, chase and love. Each ball feels different, offering a unique sensory experience. They are either soft or firm, covered with spikes, flowers, spirals and more. BPA free.

Sensory Art: Finger Paint

Finger painting is a wonderful way for young children to develop manual dexterity, creativity, and self-expression through art! 6 brightly colored, washable finger paints with no-mess caps! Includes red, yellow, pink, green, blue and purple (3 oz. each). Don’t forget the finger paint paper, or our finger paint paper and tray.

Textured Puzzles: Play Mat – 6×6 Foam Letter Puzzle (36 PC)

Boost your child’s logic, reasoning and motor skills with the Play Mat – 3×3 Foam Letter Puzzle (10 PC). Each 12″x12″ tile has multiple removable puzzle pieces and textured tops for easy grip play and skid resistant bottoms. These fun, interactive tiles feature friendly animals, trucks, boats and more. The large, interlocking foam puzzle tiles doubles as a specific play area to enhance your child’s lifestyle.

Water Toys for Beach and Bath Time: Hippo Bath Set

Encourage Fun in the Tub with the Hippo Bath Set! This adorable purple Hippo organizes all of your bath tub clutter and strikes a cheery presence in the bathroom. The Hippo Bath Set also includes 41 colorful Wet & Stick Foam Letters to encourage creative play as well as fine motor skills, logic and reasoning, gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination. When playtime is over, just drain the Wet & Stick letters in hippo’s mouth to drain and dry.

Blocks: Magic Brix Building Blocks

Spark your child’s creative side with the Edushape Magic Brix Building Blocks (72 PC). The Magic Brix offers soft and flexible building blocks especially designed for little hands. These nubby, interlocking bricks connect from practically every angle, making construction simple. The kit includes wheels and axles to build race cars, robots, houses, animals and more. With the Edushape Magic Brix Building Blocks, the sky’s the limit!

Drop by our Facebook page and tell us about your favorite sensory toy for a child with special needs. And if you have any suggestions for toys you’d like us to carry, we’d love to hear from you!

Today we are honored to share Diane Cassellius’ advice on holiday gifts for children with special needs! Diane is the wife of a Navy officer and the mother of 5 beautiful children. She lives in a beautiful New England town where the quality of life is second to none. She holds a graduate degree in psychology with a focus on medical health psychology. One of her children, Sam, has special needs – both medically and developmentally. Her passion is sharing their story and educating and advocating for those who are parents of chronically ill children.

Sensory Overload:

Your child is subjected to sensory overload on a daily basis; this provides anxiety, frustration and distress. School can be a stressful environment for your child, where they are surrounded by a multitude of stressors such as large crowds, bright lights and excessive noise. The classroom can be an over stimulating place for them with simply too much information to process.

Sensory tools such as “chewelry,” fidget toys, and stress balls are simple and inexpensive, yet valuable tools to help your child cope with sensory overload.

Consider these tools as great stocking stuffers so that your child will have the tools he or she needs at home. Having these items will help improve their quality of life. They will not only benefit them, keeping them calm and happy, but the entire family as well.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder and other Sensation Seeking:

Contrary to what many people think, not all special needs children, especially autistic children, are over responsive to stimuli, in fact, quite the contrary. Some children are actually under responsive; they are referred to as “sensory seeking.” This is because their need for sensory stimulation actually needs to be intense.

There are certain sensory tools or toys that respond to your child’s action. These are the tools that offer feedback (sounds, lights and movement). They can help children with a sensory processing disorder focus their attention, calm themselves and decrease hyperactive or impulsive responses. Building blocks, touch and feel items, and puzzles are also great examples.

For children who are sensory seekers, it will be important to find toys or items they can relate to and that they are interested in. Otherwise, the items will not be used for their intended ways which are to provide the sensory input the child desires.

Auditory Processing Issues:

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a complex issue, affecting 5% of all school aged children. Children with these issues cannot process information or hear things the same way other same-aged peers can. This not only affects the way a child hears but also the way a child speaks. For example, subtle differences between sounds and words are not recognized. Speech signals a sound that needs to be presented under optimal conditions. People with APD can miss parts of speech because it is too fast and too complex. When multiple sounds are heard, often-competing sounds can be missed. As a result, children miss or misunderstand certain parts of perceived communication.

If a child plays with the right auditory toy or tool, it can help provide them with the ability to integrate sounds. My son, Sam used these all the time. The magic microphone can help a child amplify his voice, or even help a child who is non-verbal. When the child will be able to hear his voice thanks to this toy, this will provide positive reinforcement, which will encourage him to make that sound again.

Diane

http://5littlemonkeys.me/

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