Simplifying Sensory Play with CONNETIX

By Emily Hanlon

Simplifying Sensory Play with CONNETIX

Recently, sensory play has become a hot topic among parents. Online, many parents are feeling pressured to ensure their children engage in daily ‘sensory experiences’. This often leads to over-complicating play without a clear objective.

So, what exactly is sensory play?

Sensory play involves activities that stimulate a child’s senses, including touch, sight, sound, taste and smell. These activities help children explore and naturally encourage their curiosity, leading to learning and development through hands-on experiences. Each child is unique, and their sensory requirements may evolve over time. Some children have specific sensory sensitivities, preferences or needs. By engaging in sensory play, children can explore and have control of their sensory input, in a safe and child-led way. This supports children’s sensory regulation, to be better able to receive, process and respond to sensory input that is a part of everyday life.

The good news is sensory play doesn’t need to be overly complicated to reap the benefits!

Let’s explore each of the sensory systems and simple activities you can implement at home to support your child’s sensory regulation:

Visual:

The Visual System is the part of the nervous system which allows us to see. It interprets information from visible light to build a representation of our surrounding environment. Understandably, the visual system is integral to children understanding their world and completing everyday tasks from reading, to writing, manipulating puzzles, getting dressed and finding items around the house.

Sensory Play Idea: Coloured Magnifying Glasses

What You Need:

A large container (empty box or Tupperware container)
Loose parts you have lying around your toy room (figurines, parts from forgotten about kinder surprise toys…random things you never know what to do with)
Spoons/cups
CONNETIX

Purpose of the Activity:

Sensory play that involves visual and tactile components can help children in more ways than one. We use our visual and tactile systems to determine whether something is too hot, too cold, too sharp or too rough. It is also important in helping our body develop fine motor coordination.

Explanation:

Fill a large container with uncooked rice.
Add CONNETIX, small toys, scoops/spoons and cups for a tactile experience.
Children can bury their hands to search for treasures. You can use the same rice repeatedly, just store it in an airtight container.
You can ask kids to close their eyes and guess what items they are holding when they find them, which encourages sensory integration.
Use CONNETIX as coloured lenses to view the items through different colours
You can even use different coloured CONNETIX on top of each other to explore colour mixing

Olfactory:

The Olfactory System is responsible for sensing and processing smells. This system is one of the most important, as olfactory information from the nerves in our nose travel not only to the limbic system (brain structure that is responsible for emotions, behaviour and memory storage), but also to the brains cortex (outer later), where our conscious thoughts occur.

Sensory Play Idea: Sensory Worlds

What You Need:

CONNETIX
Cotton balls
Essential oils or scented extracts (e.g. lavender, lemon, peppermint, vanilla)

Purpose of the Activity:

This activity combines visual and tactile engagement of building with CONNETIX and the olfactory stimulation from the different scents, creating a rich, multi-sensory experience that supports sensory regulation and development.

Explanation:

Prepare the Scents: Add a few drops of essential oil or scented extract to each cotton ball, ensuring the scent is strong but not overwhelming.
Build with a Purpose: Invite your child to build different structures using their CONNETIX. You can give them specific themes or challenges, like building a “scented garden” or a “castle.”
Integrate the Scents: As your child builds, encourage them to place the scented cotton balls within or around their structures. They can hide the scents inside rooms or towers, creating a multi-sensory experience.
Explore and Identify: Once the structure is complete, explore it together. Encourage your child to identify the different scents as they “visit” different parts of their CONNETIX creations. Ask them to describe the smells and share what they associate with each scent.

Auditory:

The Auditory System helps us to recognise and interpret sounds, having a significant role in speech and language development. We use auditory processing for many daily living skills and social interactions including, remembering information, following instructions, understanding social cues and keeping safe in our surroundings.

Sensory Play Idea: Homemade Maracas

What You Need:

CONNETIX
A range of loose parts

Purpose of the Activity:

To use auditory senses to explore different sounds.

Explanation:

Create small cubes out of your CONNETIX
Before adding the lid to each cube, fill them with different loose parts you have collected from around the house
Add the lid to each cube and shake them like a maraca
You can explore the different sounds each combination of parts makes in the cube and encourage your child to make different sounds using different combinations of parts

Oral Motor:

Oral motor exercises provide our bodies with input across a variety of sensory systems. For example, biting, blowing, chewing and sucking also provide proprioceptive and tactile input to our mouths.

Sensory Play Idea: Blow Through Maze Challenge

What You Need:

CONNETIX
Lightweight balls or pom-poms
Straws

Purpose of the Activity:

This activity combines the creativity of building with CONNETIX and the physical aspect of blowing, providing a fun and engaging way to support the oral motor system

Explanation:

Build the Maze: Use CONNETIX to create a simple maze or track on a flat surface. Ensure the maze has twists, turns and dead ends to make it more engaging.
Introduce the Ball: Place a lightweight ball or pom-pom at the start of the maze. The size should be small enough to be moved by blowing through a straw.
Blowing Challenge: Give your child a straw and challenge them to blow the ball through the CONNETIX maze using the straw. Encourage them to use controlled breathing to navigate the ball through the maze without it flying off the track.

Tactile:

Our tactile system is designed to protect us from danger. We use our tactile system to determine whether something is too hot/cold/sharp/rough etc. It is also important in helping our body develop fine motor coordination. Children are naturally tactile learners however some children gravitate more towards tactile input, and in contrast, others can find certain tactile experiences or textures overwhelming.

Sensory Play Idea:

What You Need:

Shaving foam
A large container/tray (optional)
Food dye (optional)
CONNETIX

Purpose of the Activity:

Messy play provides rich sensory experiences, allowing children to explore different textures, temperatures and consistencies. This helps in developing their tactile, visual and proprioceptive senses.
Engaging in messy play stimulates cognitive development. Children learn about cause and effect, problem-solving and decision-making as they manipulate materials, mix substances and observe changes.
Messy play provides an outlet for emotional expression. Children can release stress, frustration or excitement through tactile experiences, promoting emotional regulation and well-being.
Messy play fosters creativity and imagination. Children are encouraged to experiment, create and invent using various materials. This enhances their ability to think outside the box and explore new ideas.

Explanation:

Spray shaving cream on a tray or straight onto the floor outside. If you want to contain this mess a little more, you can set this up in the bathtub (or even better, the shower…and close the door behind them! Just make sure you are supervising as shaving foam can get slippery)
You can use food colouring to change the colour if you’re feeling fancy, but you can keep the mess to a minimum and eliminate it all together.
Kids can draw shapes or patterns in the shaving cream, creating a sensory and artistic experience. You can hide figurines in it, create shapes out of CONNETIX to fill with the foam, offer them paint brushes to paint the walls/floor, or even use CONNETIX as coloured lenses to explore the foam through both the visual and tactile senses. The best part? It washes right away.

Vestibular:

The Vestibular System is responsible for regulating movement, especially head movements. Additionally, the vestibular system is responsible for maintaining our balance and focusing on a stable visual image. Vestibular input is very important for maintaining a calm state and staying alert.

Sensory Play idea: Balancing Bridges

What You Need:

CONNETIX
Small, safe objects to balance on (e.g. small cushions, sturdy books)
Masking tape

Purpose of the Activity:

This activity combines the construction fun of using CONNETIX with the physical challenge of balance and movement, providing a comprehensive sensory experience that supports the vestibular system.

Explanation:

Build the Pathway: Use CONNETIX to create a pathway. These should be placed on the floor, forming a pathway that your child can walk along side.
Balancing Stations: Along the pathway, place small objects like cushions or books that your child will have to balance on as they move along the CONNETIX path.
Walking the Path: Encourage your child to walk along the pathway, stepping carefully on or around each obstacle, while making sure to follow the CONNETIX pathway. Challenge them to keep their balance while on the obstacles.

Proprioception:

The Proprioceptive System is responsible for providing us with internal information about our body’s position in space. This allows us to have coordinated movements without having to think about where we are placing parts of our body. This input allows us to develop body awareness and solid motor planning and coordination.

Sensory Play Idea: CONNETIX Tower Push-and-Pull Game

What You Need:

CONNETIX
Small weights or weighted objects (e.g. soft toys, small bean bags, soft weights)

Purpose of the Activity:

This activity not only provides a fun and interactive way for children to use CONNETIX but also supports their proprioceptive system by involving muscle engagement and resistance challenges.

Explanation:

Build the Tower: Create a tall tower or structure using CONNETIX. Ensure its stable but also slightly challenging for the child to push over.
Add Objects: Attach small objects to the tower using the CONNETIX.
Push-and-Pull Activity:
1. Pushing: Have the child gently push against the weighted tower to feel the resistance. They can use both hands to push it over. This will engage their muscles and joints, providing proprioceptive input.
2. Pulling: Rebuild the tower and encourage the child to pull the weighted objects off the structure. They can rebuild the tower by attaching the weights back on, giving them more proprioceptive feedback through their hands and arms.
3. Tower Rebuild Challenge: Challenge the child to rebuild the tower with the weights in different configurations. They can experiment with how the weights affect the tower’s stability and learn to adjust their movements accordingly.

Sensory play doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. Simple activities using everyday items, like CONNETIX, can provide meaningful sensory experiences that support a child’s development

Emily Hanlon

Emily Hanlon, otherwise known as The Playful Psychologist, is a Clinical Psychologist from Sydney. She is also the proud mum of 4- and 1-year old boys, and is expecting her third baby this year. Emily has a specific interest in autism spectrum disorder and developmental delay. She has experience providing individual and group therapy for children, adolescents, and adults with a variety of presentations including ASD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), mood-related disorders, anxiety, poor social skills, and other behavioural concerns. Emily draws on her own personal experiences of having a brother on the Autism Spectrum, and uses her unique first-hand experience, to facilitate her own therapeutic practice. Emily started The Playful Psychologist to share her love of creativity within her work. She enjoys sharing her ideas, and also loves learning from others! As a psychology student, and a young psychologist, she always wished she had somewhere to turn for inspiration - and that is what she hopes to do for educators, parents, and psychologists alike! Emily is extremely proud of the online community she has created to support the social and emotional development of children by upskilling the adults who support them.

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