It is so very easy to make your own sensory board for your baby using a few items that are easily found around the house. My little girl, Possum, absolutely LOVES her sensory board, more than any other toy in the house. Also gets her doing tummy time!
Quite simply I gathered together a few interesting scraps from around the house. I really thought about what they would feel like and how well they would adhere using hot glue.
Items that I included were -
bubble wrap, straws, cupcake wrappers, clean face washer, non-slip rubber, rock, wood, plastic from a sandwich bag, paper, card and fabric.
I firstly arranged them and attempted to spread out the various senses. So, I tried not to have all the 'smooth' textured items together but instead with them up so there was variety.
Using a hot glue gun I stuck down each of the pieces, waited 24 hours for them to fix completely and checked each item for any movement.
Now for the test!
Possum was instantly attracted to the board, as you can see. I think visually the board looked inviting because of the colours of the items and textures.
She instantly began using the board. Touching, rubbing, flicking, scratching and pulling were some of the ways she explored this board. She was exploring what she could visually see, hear and touch. It was a brilliant sensory exploration.
You can just image how different each piece felt to her. I also found this a great opportunity to talk with her about what was happening and how things felt by using key words to describe each item. Words such as 'fluffy', 'smooth', 'scratchy' were how I described some of these items.
Of course she even found this board enjoyable enough to play with it on her back.
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Feel free to have a look at some of my other wonderful sensory activities.
RICE PLAY SPAGHETTI PLAY SOAPY SLUDGE
I hope you have enjoyed reading through this post and you have some more great ways to help develop your child's sensory skills. Feel free to follow us through Pinterest or other forms of social media. We'd love to have you.
Kate
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