Thanks to sensory sensations, the child gets an idea of the world around him; this is an integral part of his development. DIY touch boxes for kids are beneficial for developing sensory skills. This article will tell you how to make an educational toy, how you can fill it, and the role of sensing in a child’s life.
WHAT IS A SENSOR?
Sensing is a way of studying the environment through the senses. It includes research involving touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste. What does sensory education give to a child?
Sensorics underlies the development of intelligence, observation, the concentration of attention.
- This trains fine hand movements (motor skills).
- It develops an aesthetic sense, imagination.
- This forms a complete picture of the surrounding world.
- Sensing influences speech abilities, visual, auditory, symbolic and other types of memory.
There is an accumulation of ideas about objects’ properties, shapes, colours, and size in early childhood. Sensorics teaches them how to characterize, compare and group them appropriately. She prepares for school and prosperous life in general.
PRINCIPLES OF SENSORY DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN
Teaching children is always carried out in the form of a game; the child not only learns through play, but he also lives in it. Dry cognitive facts or lessons are useless if the child is not interested. For him, emotionality, bodily contact, a specific plot or meaning are essential.
So, how can you develop sensing in children of different ages?
- 1-3 years – the stage of acquaintance with objects and their properties. The child learns colours, shapes, sizes, knows names.
- 4-5 years is the time for comparing and analyzing surrounding objects. The kid groups them according to specific characteristics, solves simple tasks. For example, he arranges toys in size, explores which item is extra.
- 5-6 years – the period of formation of phonemic hearing. Games aimed at correctness and purity of speech come to the fore. For example, these are classes where you need to carefully examine an object and describe it so that an adult without seeing understands what it is about.
It is recommended to use a wide variety of objects to develop sensory perception. These can be cereals, geometric shapes, toys made of different materials (plastic, wood, metal), musical instruments, etc. But special boxes are trendy for the purposeful development of sensors.
TOUCHBOX GAME
The sensory box is a container filled with objects encountered in everyday life – different in touch and appearance. These can be simple containers with cereals, sand and shells, buttons, or more complex, thematic ones. For example, you can make a house layout in a village, a beach, a zoo, the dinosaurs world, and a farm.
What games can you think of with a touch box:
- Sorting items by shape, colour or other characteristics;
- Search for individual units by parameters;
- Building a house, tower, garage; a role-playing game with figures;
- A free game where you need to show your imagination.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN HANDS?
The sensor boxes are not sold in the store. This is the category of toys that caring parents make themselves. This is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. How to make a sensor box with your own hands?
- Decide on the choice of capacity. This can be a food tray, wooden or cardboard box, inflatable pool, iron bowl, or something else. The main criteria are strength, stability, smooth edges. It is best to choose a shallow but roomy box with a lid.
- Browse design ideas. It is necessary to take into account the interests of the child. Perhaps he loves poking around in the sand, or he likes water games more. If he doesn’t like dinosaurs, then it is worth puzzling with thematic content in the style of the Jurassic period.
- Prepare your filler. When you already have an idea of what will be inside the box, you need to make a list of items that will be necessary. Then the matter is small – to buy them in a store or collect them on the street, and then process (rinse, boil, paint if necessary).
- The last stage is the filling and design of the development box. You can make it to your taste or copy entirely one of the ideas below. The main thing is not to fill the container to the top, which will prevent the scattering of objects during the game.
It would be better to make several sensor boxes with different fillings. By alternating them, parents will maintain their interest and receive a vast field for developing abilities. You can store the toy in tight bags with a slider lock or plastic food containers with a lid.
