At home, there are so many ways to help your child recognise how different sensory experiences impact their body, emotions, and thinking. Sensory exploration isn’t just about play; it’s about learning how different textures, sounds, movements, and sensations make us feel.

One of the best ways to support your child’s sensory awareness is by sharing your own experiences. When you talk about what you like and dislike, and acknowledge how your child’s preferences might be different, you’re helping them build self-awareness and an understanding of others.

For example, you might say:

• “My favourite colour is purple, but yours is green!”
• “I love the way this food tastes, but you think it’s too sour.”
• “You look so happy touching the slime, but it makes me pull this yucky face!”

These simple statements help children notice their own sensory reactions while also learning that everyone experiences the world in their own unique way.

Using sensory play to explore differences

Some sensory activities naturally encourage kids (and adults!) to pay attention to how things look, feel, sound, taste, smell, and move. Engaging in these activities together gives you a chance to talk about the different ways sensations affect each of you.

Even if you don’t personally enjoy certain textures or sensations, being brave enough to join in can be meaningful for your child. If you touch that gooey slime, even if it makes you shiver, your child gets to see your reaction, compare it to their own, and start making sense of their physical experiences in relation to others.

This can also be a great opportunity to build emotional awareness —noticing how different sensations make us feel happy, uncomfortable, excited, or relaxed.

Recognising and meeting sensory needs

Sensory experiences are not just about play—they also help children recognise their own sensory needs and figure out what helps them feel calm, focused, or comfortable.

You can encourage this awareness by noticing and talking about what your child does naturally. For example:

• “You found a comfy spot to sit, took a big sigh, and now you’re smiling.”
• “You got so excited running around—I could hear you laughing!”
• “You were so hot, but after taking off your jumper and drinking water, you feel better.”

By highlighting these moments, you help your child tune into their body’s signals and recognise what helps them feel good.

You can also model different ways people prepare to listen or focus. You might say:

• “I need to stretch and take a deep breath before I’m ready to listen.”
• “I need to turn the TV off so that I can concentrate on what you are showing me”
• “Some people like to wiggle a little, hold a squishy ball, or sit on a wobble cushion to stay focused.”

Encouraging kids to experiment with different ways to feel comfortable and ready to engage helps them develop self-regulation skills.

Managing the mess factor

One common concern for parents is the potential mess that comes with sensory play. If this is something that makes you hesitant, try strategies to make it more manageable:

• Put down a mat or plastic tablecloth to protect surfaces.
• Set up messy play in the bathtub for easy cleanup.
• Take sensory activities outdoors, using a tarp or tray to contain materials.
• After messy play outside, a quick hose-down can be an exciting sensory experience, too!

By setting up play in a way that feels comfortable for you, you’re making space for your child to explore without
added stress.

Sensory play ideas for exploration

There are so many ways to engage your child in sensory experiences at home. Here are a few ideas to try:

Tactile exploration

• Slime & oobleck: Squishy, stretchy, and a little bit gross (but so much fun!).
• Shaving foam play: Smooth and fluffy – great for finger painting.
• Fabric feelings: Compare soft, rough, silky, and bumpy textures.

Auditory & movement play

• Music & dancing: Notice how different sounds and rhythms make your body move.
• Jumping, climbing, spinning, rolling: Try different ways of moving and recognise how your body feels.
• Listening walk: Go outside and listen to birds, dogs, motorbikes, discovering what you both notice, how the sounds make your body want to move, and what sounds you could make in response to what you hear.

Outdoor & messy sensory play

• Water play: Splashing, pouring, and feeling different temperatures.
• Mud & sand: Dig, build, and squish—noticing how it feels between your fingers and toes.
• Experiments and mess: Discover the cause and effect of mixing different materials together, water, paint, glue, shaving foam, sand, flowers, bark etc. Experience the splash, crash, spill, overflow and multi-sensory surprises.

Taste & smells

• Smell exploration: Sniff flowers, herbs, or leaves -noticing how your body responds to different
  smells.
• Taste explorations: Trying out different flavours, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy—noticing how your body responds to different flavours.
• Blindfold sniff and taste: Touch, smell, taste things and guess what they are.

As you share in sensory play with your child you are sharing in the excitement, fun, silliness and probably some level of bravery and disgust, which supports your connection and understanding of each other. Through these experiences you are helping your child develop body awareness, emotional understanding, and an appreciation for different experiences. The more that they recognise what feels good (or not-so-good) for them, the better they can navigate the world around them.

This blog was written by Alice Robinson
MAChildPThy, MA Creative Arts Therapy, GDipEd(Prim), BMus, ANZACATA Registered