How Sensory Play Supports Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Understanding the World Around Them
For children with special educational needs (SEN), navigating and making sense of the world can sometimes feel overwhelming. Whether due to sensory processing issues, developmental delays, or other challenges, engaging with the world around them can be difficult. However, sensory play offers a valuable and effective way to support these children in their development.
Sensory play, which involves engaging a child's five senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell—provides a hands-on, immersive experience that helps children better understand and interact with their environment. For children with SEN, sensory play isn’t just a fun activity; it’s a powerful tool that supports cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development, all while fostering a sense of connection to the world around them.
In this post, we’ll explore how sensory play specifically benefits children with special needs and how it can help them better understand their world.
What Is Sensory Play for SEN Children?
Sensory play for children with special needs involves activities that encourage children to explore their environment using their senses. It might include activities like squishing playdough, listening to different sounds, experimenting with various textures, or exploring different materials, such as sand, water, or fabric. The focus is on creating a safe and supportive environment where children can explore and discover without the pressure of achieving a specific outcome.
Sensory play allows children to engage in meaningful experiences that are tailored to their needs and abilities. For children with sensory processing disorders, autism, or developmental delays, these activities can provide critical opportunities to explore the world at their own pace, helping them develop important life skills in the process.
How Sensory Play Helps Children with SEN Understand the World
Building Cognitive Awareness and Understanding
For children with SEN, sensory play can significantly enhance cognitive development. Many children with special needs face challenges in understanding cause and effect, abstract concepts, or how objects interact with one another. Through sensory play, children can experience hands-on learning that makes these concepts more accessible.
For example, a child with developmental delays might learn about liquid and solid properties by playing with water, noticing how it flows and changes form when poured or frozen. Similarly, engaging with different textures—like sand, paint, or rice—can teach children about materials, shape, and texture, which helps them understand and make connections to the world around them.
Through these sensory experiences, children with SEN are given a concrete way to explore abstract concepts. The repetition and hands-on nature of sensory play also encourage memory-building, which is essential for cognitive growth.
Enhancing Communication and Language Skills
Sensory play is a fantastic way to support communication development, particularly for children with speech delays or limited verbal expression. As children engage with various sensory materials, caregivers or therapists can introduce new vocabulary, describing what the child is experiencing—terms like “rough,” “smooth,” “sticky,” “cold,” “soft,” and “loud” can help expand their language skills and give them the tools to better describe their world.
For children with autism or speech and language delays, sensory play can provide nonverbal opportunities for communication, such as pointing to or gesturing toward objects. Over time, as children become familiar with the language associated with sensory experiences, they may feel more comfortable expressing their needs and emotions.
Furthermore, for children with social communication difficulties, engaging in sensory activities with a caregiver or peer can provide a safe and structured environment to practice interaction, turn-taking, and verbal exchanges.
Supporting Emotional and Social Development
Sensory play offers a safe, controlled environment where children with SEN can express their emotions and learn to regulate their feelings. Many children with special needs, particularly those on the autism spectrum, experience sensory sensitivities that make interacting with the world overwhelming or distressing. Sensory play helps them gradually build tolerance and resilience to these stimuli in a relaxed, non-judgmental setting.
For example, a child who is sensitive to tactile sensations may initially resist touching certain textures but, through repeated, positive exposure, may learn to tolerate or even enjoy those sensations. By exploring different textures, sounds, and colors in a playful way, children can learn to regulate their emotional responses and develop coping mechanisms for managing sensory overload.
In addition, sensory play often encourages social interaction. When children engage in sensory activities with others, they learn how to take turns, share materials, and cooperate. These interactions help children develop important social skills, such as empathy, communication, and problem-solving, which are essential for building positive relationships.
Improving Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation
Children with sensory processing issues—whether under-responsive or over-responsive to sensory stimuli—can greatly benefit from sensory play. For children who seek sensory input (e.g., children who crave touch or movement), activities like squishing playdough, jumping on a trampoline, or squeezing stress balls provide satisfying sensory experiences. Conversely, for children who are hypersensitive to sensory input, sensory play offers the opportunity to gently introduce them to new textures or sounds, helping them gradually become more accustomed to these experiences.
For example, a child with sensory aversions might feel overwhelmed by loud noises or certain textures in food. Through sensory play activities, caregivers can slowly and carefully introduce these experiences, allowing the child to engage with them in a less stressful, more controlled environment. This exposure can help children develop greater tolerance and self-regulation, which can make everyday activities—such as eating, dressing, or participating in group activities—much easier.
Building Motor Skills and Coordination
Sensory play provides a unique opportunity to improve both fine and gross motor skills. Manipulating materials like playdough, sand, or water requires hand-eye coordination and helps strengthen the small muscles in the hands and fingers. Children with SEN can practice skills such as scooping, pouring, and grasping, which are essential for daily tasks like eating, dressing, and writing.
Gross motor activities, such as jumping, crawling, or dancing to music, help children develop balance, coordination, and body awareness. For children with physical disabilities or developmental delays, these activities are particularly beneficial for building strength and motor planning, which are critical for achieving greater independence.
Final Thoughts
Sensory play is an incredibly valuable tool for children with special educational needs. It provides them with the chance to explore their environment, develop essential skills, and better understand the world around them in a way that suits their individual needs. From cognitive growth to social development, sensory play is a key component in helping children with SEN build a stronger connection to their world, fostering greater independence, confidence, and well-being along the way.