Activity Highlight: Sensory Tactile Play with Spaghetti!

Today's activity highlight is diving into the wonderful world of messy play! OTs love messy play. Simple activities with varieties of textures and temperatures build foundational skills that are crucial for children's development. It can foster fine motor skills, cognition, emotional regulation, and sensory exploration. By allowing children to explore textures like sand, slime, or paint, we are able to strengthen neural pathways, encourage problem-solving, and builds creativity, Bonus: it can be incredibly regulating for little ones!

Why Is Sensory Play So Important?

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates your child's senses. When we talk about tactile play specifically, we are focusing on touch. A child's skin is often their primary way of understanding the world around them. Engaging in messy play helps to:

• Build Brain Connections: As children touch, squish, and pull, new neural pathways are formed.

• Develop Fine Motor Skills: Using fingers to pinch, grasp, and manipulation objects strengthens small hand muscles.

• Enhance Language Skills: Describe what they are feeling! Is it "slimy," "cold," "bumpy," or "soft"? This expands their vocabulary.

• Regulate Emotions: Messy play can be both calming and stimulating, helping children self-regulate.

  
  

Activity Highlight: Messy Spaghetti

Child using scissors to cut cooked spaghetti for tactile play activity

Try taking this pantry staple and turning it into an opportunity for tactile and fine motor exploration! This activity is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers because it targets:

• Sight: Bright, colored spaghetti and a playful face design.

• Touch: The unique slimy, sticky, slippery texture of cooked pasta.

• Smell: You can add a dash of olive oil and oregano for a more enhanced scent.

• Taste: It’s 100% edible and safe! (A big plus for kids who put everything in their mouths!)

  
  

What You’ll Need:

• Cooked spaghetti

• A dash of olive oil (helps prevent sticking and adds scent)

• A pinch of oregano or basil (optional, for scent)

• A face plate (found on Amazon)

• Toddler-safe scissors

Silly Face Plate used for activity. Found on Amazon.com

Let the fun begin!

Let your child explore and see what kind of opprunties unfold. Some benefits we've noted with this activity include:

🍝 Sensory Integration- tactile exploration, textures, smells, squishing, emotional regulation

🍝 Scissor Skills support building fine motor strength, helps to develop eye- hand coordination, using two hands together, and visual attention.

🍝 For littles who are learning new foods, this is a play based approach to exploring the properties of a food without the pressure of eating.

🍝 Opportunities for creativity - make spaghetti bracelets on each other, spaghetti mustaches or eyebrows on one another, hide and seek small figurines or animals in the spaghetti, for older kiddos- practice cutting with utensils

Check out our Instagram for a video how-to!