Julia is one year and nine months old, and for twenty minutes she has been sitting on the kitchen floor over a bowl of dry semolina. She pours it with a spoon into a cup, from the cup back into the bowl, then plunges both hands into it and goes still. She is not playing with anything in particular. She is not building, sorting or “making” anything an adult would call a task. And yet she is focused in a way she rarely is with brightly coloured battery-powered toys.
What you can see in that kitchen is sensory play in its purest form: a child feeding her senses, entirely of her own accord. Grains slipping between her fingers, their coolness, the rustle in the cup, the weight of a full spoon — each of these pieces of information reaches the brain through a different channel, and the brain learns to assemble them into a single picture of the world. All a parent needs to know is which stimuli to offer at which age and what to watch out for.
This article is for the parent who has no problem to solve — who simply wants to play with their child more thoughtfully. You will find an explanation of what sensory development is, a table of the eight senses, and play ideas arranged by age, from babies to preschoolers.
Sensory play — what is it and why does a child need it?
Sensory development is the way a child gets to know the world through the senses, and sensory play is play in which the main material is the stimulus itself — texture, sound, smell, movement — rather than the end result. A young child does not learn the ideas of “heavy”, “rough” or “loud” from a definition, but from hundreds of repetitions in which the body receives that information directly.
That is why sensory play is not an add-on to “real” learning but its foundation. Before a child compares two numbers, they have to feel many times that one handful is bigger than another. Before they name a colour, they have to see it next to others. Before they can sit at a table, their nervous system has to learn where the body is in space and how to keep its balance.
Maria Montessori described the period from birth to roughly the age of six as a time of particular sensitivity to sensory impressions — the child seeks out stimuli on their own, because this is exactly when the brain learns from them most intensely. We write more about this developmental background in our article on sensitive periods in the first six years of life.
It is also worth separating two terms that are often mixed up online. Sensory development is the everyday name for the whole area of how the senses mature. Sensory integration is a specific process in the brain that organises input from all the senses at once — and the name of a field of therapy when that process is hard for a child. The play ideas in this article support the development of every child; they are not therapy and do not replace it.
All eight senses in one table — which play feeds which sense?
The five senses we learn about at school are only part of the picture: a child uses eight, and three of them — the vestibular sense, proprioception and interoception — work “underneath”, and they are usually what explains why a toddler spins in circles, hugs with all their strength or suddenly realises they are very hungry. The table brings all eight together in one place.
| Sense | What it is in one sentence | Example of play at home | Sign that the child is seeking this input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touch | Information from the skin about texture, temperature and pressure | A tray of semolina, salt dough, a bag with a mystery object | Touches everything, puts hands into food and mud |
| Sight | Colour, shape, movement and distance | A glitter bottle, sorting colours, torch shadows | Stares at spinning objects and light |
| Hearing | Sound, its volume and direction | Boxes filled with different grains, a kitchen band | Makes noise, taps, repeats sounds |
| Smell | Scents and recognising them | Little jars of spices to sniff | Sniffs food, clothes, people |
| Taste | Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and texture in the mouth | Tasting fruit with different textures | Chews and sucks objects long after the baby stage |
| Vestibular sense | Balance and movement of the head in space | Swinging, rocking in a blanket, rolling on a mattress | Spins in circles, jumps, cannot sit still |
| Proprioception | Deep pressure from muscles and joints — where the body is | Carrying heavy things, pushing a basket, cushion wrestling | Bumps into furniture, hugs with full force, likes being “wrapped up” |
| Interoception | Signals from inside the body: hunger, thirst, heartbeat | Listening to the heart after running, a “how does my tummy feel” game | Reports needs late, swings suddenly into hunger or anger |
The table is not a diagnosis. Every child sometimes spins in circles and every child sometimes bumps into furniture — that is an ordinary part of development. The column of signs is there to help you match play to what the child is seeking at a given time, not to look for problems.
Sensory play for babies and one-year-olds
In the first year, the best play is the kind in which the child does not have to “be able to” do anything. It is enough that there is a stimulus and that it is safe. A baby learns about the world mainly through the mouth and hands, so the basic rule is: anything you offer may end up in the mouth. An object that fits inside a toilet roll tube is too small for a child under three.
Treasure basket. A low, stable basket with a dozen or so everyday objects made of different materials: a wooden spoon, a metal whisk, a piece of fur, a pine cone without loose scales, a thick piece of linen, a silicone mould. A baby who can sit up takes things out, turns them over, bangs them and puts them in the mouth. The parent does not lead the play — they sit alongside and watch. Every few days, swap some of the objects so the basket keeps surprising.
Sensory bottles. Clear plastic bottles with the lid screwed on tightly and taped shut. Fill one with water, oil and a drop of food colouring, another with glitter in a mixture of water and glycerine, a third with dry semolina or beads. The child rolls them, shakes them and watches the contents settle. It is visual and auditory play, and movement play too when the bottles are rolled.
Textures under hands and feet. A few pieces of different materials spread on the floor: artificial grass, a bath mat, fleece, bubble wrap, a wooden board. A crawling child, or one taking first steps barefoot, discovers the differences alone. The soles of the feet have a great many sensory nerve endings, so walking barefoot on different surfaces is one of the simpler and more valuable forms of sensory play.
Water in a bowl. A shallow bowl with a little lukewarm water, a small cup and a sponge. The baby splashes, dips their hands and pours. Water is a tactile, thermal, visual and auditory stimulus all at once. This play needs an adult present the whole time — even a few centimetres of water is enough for a small child to choke.
Rocking and carrying. For a baby, vestibular play is simply gentle rocking in your arms, swinging in a blanket held by two adults, or an “aeroplane” along your forearm. It is also a way of calming down: rhythmic, predictable movement settles the nervous system.
Sensory play for two- and three-year-olds
A two- or three-year-old wants to pour, tip, squeeze and see what happens when they do something. This is the age of “cause and effect” and also the age at which a child starts to compare: more and less, heavier and lighter, louder and quieter. Sensory play at this stage is worth setting up on a tray or in a shallow container — a defined space helps the child concentrate and keeps the mess in check.
Tray of dry material. Semolina, rice, pasta or dried peas in a shallow container, with spoons, scoops, a funnel and cups. The child pours, fills and empties. It is the same game Julia invented by herself in the kitchen — you only need to prepare it on purpose. Offer dried pulses only under supervision: small children can push them into their nose or ear.
Salt dough and homemade play dough. Flour, salt, water and a little oil make a dough that can be kneaded, rolled and pressed with objects. Salt dough contains a lot of salt, so it is not for eating and not for a child who still puts everything in the mouth. For the youngest, a dough of flour and water or cooked and cooled semolina is a better choice.
Foam and water with extras. Children’s bath foam in a bowl, with sponges, brushes and small cups. Or water with ice cubes that have small figures frozen inside — the child watches the ice melt and rescues the “trapped” toys. Playing with ice gives a clear thermal stimulus.
Sensory path. A few shallow containers or pieces of material laid out in a row: a towel, a cushion, a tray of sand, a spiky mat, bubble wrap. The child walks along them barefoot and names what they feel. The path combines touch with balance and teaches the words for sensations: soft, hard, cold, prickly.
Kitchen band. Pots, lids, wooden spoons, a tin of rice, a jar of beans. The child checks which object sounds loud and which quiet, which sounds are high and which low. Take turns playing loudly and in a whisper — it is a simple game in controlling the force of movement.
Finger painting with edible paint. Natural yoghurt coloured with beetroot or spinach juice, spread on a tray or a sheet of plastic. For a child who still tests everything with the mouth, this is a safer version of painting. Some children do not want to touch wet materials — that is normal, and there is more about it in the questions at the end of this article.
Carrying and pushing. Two-year-olds love helping to carry shopping or push the laundry basket or a chair. It is not only helping at home but also proprioceptive play: working the muscles against resistance gives the nervous system clear information about the position of the body, and it often has a calming effect.
Tunnels and blankets. A tunnel made of cardboard boxes, or a blanket stretched between chairs, for the child to crawl through. Crawling engages the whole body, and a snug space gives the sense of security that many children seek when they are tired of stimulation.
Sensory play for preschoolers
A preschooler adds a task to the stimulus itself: they want to guess, compare, match and win. Sensory play at this age can therefore look like games — with rules, puzzles and increasing difficulty. This is also the point at which analogies with Montessori sensorial materials come in naturally.
Mystery bag. An opaque bag with a few objects inside — a key, a conker, a die, a teaspoon, a piece of sponge. The child puts a hand in without looking and guesses what they are holding. A harder version: the bag holds pairs of objects, and the task is to find two identical ones by touch alone. In Montessori education this game is called the stereognostic bag, and it practises recognising shape without using sight.
Sound pairs. Six identical, opaque little containers — vitamin tubs, for example — filled in pairs: two with rice, two with beans, two with salt. The child shakes them and looks for the pairs. Later they can arrange them from quietest to loudest. This is the home version of the Montessori sound cylinders.
Smelling jars. A few little jars with a cotton pad soaked in a scent or a spice: cinnamon, vanilla, mint, lemon zest, coffee. The child sniffs with eyes closed and guesses. In the pairs version, they look for two jars that smell the same.
Warm and cold. Two bottles of water at different temperatures, a metal spoon and a wooden one, a stone from the windowsill and a stone from a pocket. The child compares them by hand and arranges them from warmest to coldest. The game teaches attentive touch and vocabulary.
Balance games. Walking along a line of masking tape stuck to the floor, first normally, then heel to toe, then with a small bag of rice on the head. Standing on one leg against the clock. Carrying a potato on a spoon across the room. These are vestibular games that preschoolers treat as competitions.
Cushion wrestling and the “pancake”. The child lies on a blanket and the parent rolls them up like a pancake and gently “presses the filling” with their hands. Or a cushion push, where the winner is whoever pushes the other off the blanket. Firm, predictable pressure is a proprioceptive stimulus that many children love — and it often helps them wind down before sleep.
Listening to the body. A preschooler can begin to notice signals from inside the body. Ten jumps, then a hand on the chest: how fast is the heart beating? And after a minute of rest? Talking about how the tummy feels when we are hungry and how it feels when we are upset builds interoception, the ability to recognise one’s own states.
How Montessori sees sensory play — isolating a single quality
Sensorial materials in the Montessori method share one principle: each of them differs in only one quality at a time. The pink tower is ten cubes of the same colour and texture that differ only in size. The colour tablets differ only in shade. The sound cylinders look identical and differ only in sound. This way the child does not have to guess what to pay attention to — the difference they are looking for is the only difference there is.
This principle is easy to bring home, turning a random game into learning to discriminate. Three examples from the ideas in this article:
- Tray of semolina. Instead of one tray with a mixture, prepare two identical bowls and two identical cups and change only the material: fine semolina in one, large dried peas in the other. The child compares only the size of the grain and the sound it makes when poured.
- Smelling jars. Make all the jars look identical and opaque. If one is green and the other red, the child will remember the colour, not the scent.
- Warm and cold. Compare two objects made of the same material that differ only in temperature — for example, two metal spoons, one warmed in the hand and the other taken from the fridge.
The second Montessori principle is control of error: well-prepared play shows the child by itself whether they got it right. Sound pairs can be marked with a coloured dot underneath — after matching, the child turns the containers over and checks alone, without asking an adult. We describe how the original materials are built in our article on Montessori materials, and everyday exercises that combine well with sensory play in the article on Montessori exercises at home.
Sensory play outdoors
The outdoors is the largest sensory room a child has at their disposal — and the only one where mess is not a problem. Many stimuli that have to be prepared at home are simply there outside.
In autumn there are leaves to throw, rustle and sort by colour, conkers to pour and puddles to jump in wearing wellies. In winter — snow squeezed with bare hands for a moment and in gloves for longer, ice to observe, and sledging, which is intense vestibular play. In spring and summer — mud, wet and dry sand, grass underfoot, water from a watering can, pine cones and stones of different weights.
A playground is also a set of sensory games, just under a different name. Swings and roundabouts work the vestibular sense. Climbing frames, climbing walls and hanging from a bar work proprioception. Balance beams and kerbs work balance. A child who keeps choosing the same equipment at the playground is usually telling you which input they need most at that time.
Outdoors, the same safety rule applies as at home, only in a different form: check what the child picks up and puts in the mouth, especially mushrooms, berries and small pebbles.
When is sensory play no longer enough?
Sensory play supports the development of every child, but it is not the answer to every difficulty. If a child constantly and strongly avoids certain stimuli — cannot bear clothing labels, covers their ears at ordinary sounds, reacts with panic to hair washing — or constantly seeks them in a way that limits everyday life, that is a subject for a conversation with a specialist rather than for another game.
The line is not a single behaviour but repetition and intensity: whether the difficulty lasts for weeks, whether it appears in many situations, and whether it takes away the child’s access to ordinary things such as getting dressed, eating or playing with other children. In that case, talk to your paediatrician or to a therapist trained in sensory integration, who can carry out an assessment. Bring notes from a week or two of observation — what happened, when, for how long and what helped — because they make the first conversation much more useful.
FAQ — the questions parents ask most often
When can you start sensory play? From the first weeks of life, only in a different form than later on. For a newborn, sensory play means skin-to-skin contact, rocking, a parent’s voice and high-contrast pictures. A treasure basket works once the baby sits steadily, and play with doughs and dry materials once the child stops putting everything they hold into the mouth, although supervision is still needed then.
Doesn’t playing with food teach children to waste it? It is a common and understandable concern. Use cheap products and small amounts — a handful of semolina is enough — and keep the dry material in a closed container to use again and again. For a child, playing with semolina is not eating but a material, like sand. If this principle matters to you, it is easy to replace food with kinetic sand, pebbles for older children, or water.
How do you make a sensory dough that is safe to put in the mouth? For a child who tests everything with the mouth, doughs made from food without much salt work best: cooked and cooled semolina, natural yoghurt coloured with vegetable juice, or a dough of flour and water. Avoid salt dough, water beads and small parts — water beads swell once swallowed and are dangerous for small children.
How much time a day should you spend on sensory play? There is no norm and no need to count. A few minutes of pouring water while washing hands, a barefoot walk on the grass and carrying the shopping are sensory play too. Short and often is better than an hour once a week. The child decides how long it lasts: when they lose interest, the play is over.
What is the difference between sensory play and sensory integration? Sensory play is the everyday term for play that supports the development of the senses. Sensory integration is a process in the brain that organises input from many senses at once, and also the name of a therapy for children for whom that process is difficult. Sensory play is for every child; sensory integration therapy is for a child after an assessment.
What should you do if a child does not want to touch doughs and wet materials? Do not force it. Start with tools — a spoon, a brush, a stick — so the child can play with the dough without touching it with their fingers. Then offer the dough in a sealed zip-lock bag to squeeze through the plastic. After a few such attempts, many children reach in by hand on their own. If the reluctance to touch is very strong and appears in many situations, it is worth discussing with a specialist.
To finish
Julia in the kitchen did not need a special toy or a programme of activities. She needed a bowl, semolina, a spoon and an adult who did not interrupt her after two minutes. That is what most good sensory play looks like: simple, cheap and repeatable, and its value comes from the child deciding how long and how intensely they want to experience a given stimulus.
Observation will tell you most about what your child needs. Which games do they choose on their own? Which ones calm them, and which ones wind them up? Which stimuli do they avoid? These answers are worth more than any list of ideas — including this one. And if you are considering a Montessori nursery for your child, that page describes what everyday life there looks like.