Here’s Everything You Need to Know…

SO? What is Sensory Play and What does Adventure Arc Kids do?

We are Adventure Arc and we specialise in hand crafting sensory play items for little hands.

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(We do however appreciate that not everyone’s requirements are the same.( Just as each child is an individual, they may require individual and specially made items. Please feel free to Whatsapp us for personal attention)

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So…What is Sensory Play Anyway?

Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses: touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing.

Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they; play, create, investigate and explore. The sensory activities allow children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information. This helps their brain to create stronger connections to process and respond to sensory information.
For example, initially a child may find it difficult to play appropriately with a peer when there are other things going on in the environment, with conflicting noise. However, through sensory play, exploring sounds and tasks a child learns to adapt to being able to block out the noises that are not important and focus on the play which is occurring with their peer.
Another example is a child who is particularly fussy with eating foods; with a wet texture. An example is spaghetti – the use of sensory play can assist the child in: touching, smelling and playing with the texture in an environment with little expectation.
As the child develops trust and understanding of this texture, it helps build positive pathways in the brain to say: “Hey, it’s safe to engage with this food.”

Sensory play literally helps shape what children to believe to be positive and safe in the brain. Ultimately, shaping the choices children make and impacting behaviour.

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Here are 5 reasons why sensory play is beneficial:

Firstly, Research shows that; sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways. This leads to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
Secondly, Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine and gross motor  skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.
Thirdly, This type of play aids in developing and enhancing memory
Fourthly, Sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child
Fifth, This helps children learn sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry)

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Why Sensory Play is Important for Early Childhood Development?

From birth through to early childhood, children use their senses to explore and try to make sense of the world around them.
They do this by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, moving and hearing. Children and even adults learn best and retain the most information when they engage their senses.

This leads to a child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks and supports cognitive growth, language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem solving skills. We often talk about the five senses:

Many of our favourite memories are associated with one or more of our senses. For instance, the smell of a summer night campfire or a song you memorized the lyrics to with a childhood friend.
Now, when your nostrils and eardrums are stimulated with those familiar smells and sounds respectively, your brain triggers a flashback memory to those special times. Providing opportunities for children to actively use their senses as they explore their world through ‘sensory play’ is crucial to brain development – it helps to build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways.

Taste – the stimulation that comes when our taste receptors react to chemicals in our mouth.
Touch – the stimulation that comes from touch receptors in our skin that react to pressure, heat/cold, or vibration.
Smell – the stimulation of chemical receptors in the upper airways (nose)
Sight – the stimulation of light receptors in our eyes, which our brains then interpret into visual images.
Hearing – the reception of sound, via mechanics in our inner ear.

However there are two others we commonly miss:
Body awareness (also known as proprioception) – the feedback our brains receive from stretch receptors in our muscles and pressure receptors in joints which enable us to gain a sense where our bodies are in space.
Balance – the stimulation of the vestibular system of the inner ear to tell us our body position in relation to gravity.

Adventure Arc Kids provides the tools you need to stimulate all of these senses to ensure that all the early childhood developmental skills are explored, used and stimulated.

What is Sensory Play? What is Sensory Play? What is Sensory Play? What is Sensory Play? What is Sensory Play?

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For more information please visit: Benefits of Sensory Play, The Importance of Sensory Play, How Sensory Play Helped My Toddler on the Autism Spectrum, Autism At Home, Benefits of Sensory Activities for Children with Autism

Please don’t feel shy to ask questions, Whatsapp us for personal attention)