Sensory / Messy Play 

From the moment we are born we use our senses. Our senses: taste, smell, touch, movement, hearing and sight help us pay attention to our world (Gellens, 2013). 

In the early years, children use all their senses to explore and learn.

Why do we set up sensory experiences for the children?

We use our senses to build strong relationships as we unpack feelings, ideas and friendships. The more information the brain can get, the more neural pathways are created to allow us to learn and remember (Greutman & Kostelyk, 2018). Multi-sensory experiences support the children to learn with more than one of their senses. When children are given the chance to use all their senses during play, they have more opportunities to develop their language, literacy skills and memory. They are able to take in and process different types of information. Not to mention for most children it is a lot of fun and when experiences are fun the children do not even realise they are learning!