Starting Sensory Play with Play Dough
Okay friends, I’m so excited to talk about PLAY DOUGH. It is truly one of the most tactile, diverse, inspiring, open-ended and FUN sensory mediums out there! It’s been so fun to watch it “grow up” with the girls, as they’ve been playing with it since around 18 months.
If you missed our Five Basics for Starting Sensory Play, make sure you catch that because play dough really is just another “filler” and the basic framework can still apply to give you the confidence you need to start off.
Benefits of Dough Play
FINE MOTOR SKILLS. Motor skills develop from “big” to “small,” meaning that that tummy time that your baby is encouraged to do helped them do things like hold their head up, engage their core to crawl, sit, and walk, isolate their arm to move and hand to open and close to drop a ball into a box, to working those tiny finger muscles to grasp tiny bits of food or hold a pencil. This is why you’ll see kids holding a pencil with their whole fist - it’s just stronger! So if your little one needs practice holding a pencil, we aren’t going to practice with the pencil over and over (hello boredom), we can encourage this fine motor skill through intentional play, like dough play!
SENSORY INPUT. Working with the dough gives lovely proprioceptive input. Proprioception tells us where our body is in space, how much strength I need to complete a task, and controls how we respond to sensory stimuli. Oh, hello hands. You’re here squishing this dough so hard it’s coming through my fingers. Oh, hello feet. You’re stomping on the grass. Actions like rolling, squishing, pinching, seeing the colors, and smelling the scents all give fabulous sensory input, aiding in skills like regulation, coordination, and awareness.
IMAGINATIVE. There are so many spin offs available with dough. Use it by itself to mold figures or add a few tools like rolling pins, stamps, or cookie cutters to elevate play! You could even add figures and create a small world. You could even throw in some academic benefits like tracing over letters, rolling out numbers and smashing dough balls as you count, etc.
Our Dough
Our gorgeous dough is from an Australian company, Dough My Dear. Not only does she sell dough with the most dreamy colors in medium or petite jars, she’s got a range of and mess mats, aprons, rolling pins! This dough is soft and the smells are lovely! She drops holiday options as well that are so unique. She’s basically your one stop shop for dough play!
For my American friends, Young, Wild, and Friedman is my go-to. Julie is not only a dear friend, but a play dough boss! It’s been so fun to watch her start YWF from the ground up! She has adorable kits, but has also started doing dough refills.
Same Things To Keep In Mind
Just like our sensory play basics, there are some important things to keep in mind to help your play become successful.
Choose your filler wisely - nontoxic dough, basic, basic tools (like one thing, friends)! Even if you’re purchasing a kit, don’t feel the need to overwhelm your child with everything in it and all three colors of dough on their first go. Give them the space to interact with it slowly and intentionally. Plus, it’ll last longer.
Choose your environment carefully. Our favorites have been our children’s IKEA table and our Gathre mat. These mess mats from Dough My Dear are genius and even have a little pocket for tools! These are our go-tos now! Snag a tray or just play at a table.
Would you feel better if it was done outside? Great, out you go! Would you feel even better if it was more contained in a sensory bin? You do you. Bottom line, your child needs a designated space.
Remain close and be ready to redirect. You’re playing with them in the beginning. Follow their lead. Hmm I wonder what we could use this for? Like with any new skill or expectation, it’s going to need to lovingly and firmly be restated multiple times. Remind your child of what’s expected of them before play begins. Additionally, stay close enough to stop it and give a friendly reminder. “Oh, you were about to put the dough in your mouth. Don’t forget, dough stays on the mat!” Since it is their first go, I’d be lenient and give a few reminders because we want play to last more than 0.5 seconds, and let them try a few times, but if it seems like they cannot keep the dough on the table or are throwing or leaving, you will lovingly and firmly tell them that our play and we will try another time. No punishment, no shame. Just an acknowledgement of where they’re at and where you’ll meet them!
Redirect and follow through. Consider you non-negotiables and be ready to intervene. With dough, mine are out of your mouth, no throwing, and in the space! Use your hand to gently stop their movement so that they aren’t being reinforced with muscle memory doing the incorrect thing. “Dough stays on the mat!” “Dough stays out of our mouth.” If we want to help build their self-discipline muscle and have success (and less mess) during sensory play, your follow through is vital. They will certainly express their disapproval, but your immediate follow through will cut the time down that you are having to spend managing them drastically! You are setting a foundation for ALL the sensory play for years to come and the important lesson that there is follow through.
Reflect on play later. I love this with dough, as the girls usually launch into stories of cooking and princesses and dragons and weddings and soup! This part is important at building anticipation for the next play, not to mention great verbal skills.
Mixing Colors
I constantly get this question. “Do I let my girls mix colors?” Considering it’s their creation and I want them to have ownership over it, yes! However, this has definitely come with some tears because sweet three year olds don’t exactly know what “irreversible” means. So we have a few conversations about this, especially if they’re playing together. They’ll each divide the dough and start playing. I’ll remind them that once they mix some/all of the dough they’ll get a new color (so neat!), but we can’t make it go back to the original colors. We continue the conversation, “You might feel sad about the choice you made and want to change your mind, but once you choose to mix the colors it’s a magic new color now. So let’s stop before we begin and make a plan for our dough. Do I want to mix the colors? Do I want to keep them separate?”
You can even suggest mixing a tiny ball of each color just to see how it will turn out. Just by pausing and encouraging this mindfulness will (maybe) help prevent a meltdown when your beautiful pink has transformed into a purple shade after being mixed with blue. I mean not as bad as if it were mixed with green, right?
One Filler, 5 Ways
So, can I still use some of our 1 filler/multiple ways prompts? YES! This is what makes dough so incredibly versatile!
Puzzle pieces can turn into stamps - what made this? Stamp them in the dough and have your child complete their “puzzle” by nestling them back into their spot in the dough.
Small worlds can easily be created with animals and other loose parts! The girls currently love using our Grapat Mandala parts in and around their dough.
Numeracy skills are so easy to bring into dough play and I could do a whole post on math skills! Our favorite right now is rolling the number to match the outline on a number card and then creating that many corresponding circles to smash as we count!
Imaginative play shines here when you bring real world tools into dough play like kid-friendly kitchen knives, rolling pins, cookie cutters, plates, muffin tins, silicone molds, and on and on!
Book retelling is easily incorporated with a few mindful things thrown into the dough! Use some blue dough and plastic ocean animals for a retelling of a favorite under the sea book!
Friends, I cannot wait to see and hear more about your dough play! It’s truly an unmatched sensory experience for our young learners. I’m here to help you create that framework so it can be a part of their independent play for years to come!