[Music]
Eric thank you for that if you have a
child you probably know the importance
of brain development Justin excuse me
language skills memory skills the list
goes on and on but did you know there
are some simple ways to enhance that
development and it all starts in our
homes here to teach us how to build
sensory play activities using items we
already have at home is blogger of young
wild and free men Julie Friedman hi
Julie hey you know this is so great so
of course we talked about your blog but
you're a mom of three young wild
Friedman's you're not a teacher but your
daughter had some social anxiety issues
right what talk to us about that
so when our first child she had a
language delay and one of her therapists
recommended that if I incorporate
sensory play into our day-to-day
activities that it could help just
encourage language and ease frustrations
and anxiety and it really has done
wonders for us so that's advocate it's
not just all fun and games because this
is a critical part of a young person's
development let's talk about some of the
items you brought today because glitter
pom-poms beans they seem like basic
items but you say the the learning is
way more complicated than that
definitely if you get a little creative
you can do a lot with it
okay so for babies sensory play can
start at any age and this would be for
just the youngest of babies and all you
really do hear is you fill a bag with
water and then you can just add
different elements like glitter or pom
pom balls you're on a thirst I'm in here
yeah yes so the glitter is already in
that bag yeah okay and then you just zip
it back up I like to keep it shut just
in case a good ziploc poking hazards
here ziplock and tape it and you can
just watch the pom-poms float around
it's got a different texture you can
tape it to your babies highchair it's a
really fun baby activity I mean great
colors too because that's the thing you
know just that using the primary colors
so bright and beautiful to look at yeah
okay that's easy enough it is and then
moving on this would be like the perfect
toddler activity whence your child's no
longer putting things in their mouth
these are just dried black beans that I
grabbed up a TV yesterday and Barry
expensive $1 yeah and then I like to
throw in some dump trucks for the boys
sandbox and then we do little sticks and
some wood rounds a bowl some spoons and
then your kids can just use their
imaginations to scoop and use the dump
truck and there's little wood rounds
that I used usually to spell out
different words that we're playing with
like this would spot the word truck and
it's just a great open-ended creative
sensorial play tray that kids can use in
addition to the little sounds that the
beans make though I mean this is a point
in life when children are developing
their sense of touch and the
differentiating between textures right
definitely and this teaches your kids
dry whereas other activities will teach
them wet or slimy or smelly or it's just
all different sorts of sensory
integration and besides that too it's
also helping kind of with that fine
motor skill definitely yes the scooping
and the pouring that's teaching you know
early writing how to hold their pen and
it just muscles in the hand okay what is
this all right me and my husband's
favorite okay this is water beads so get
your hands in there water beads water
beads oh my gosh
please start out the size of a pen
needle there are like microscopic add
water and over the course of three to
six hours they turn into this I thought
they were marbles when I was looking at
it now break one of them open and see
what happens
oh my gosh it's like a hard plastic it's
been like jello yeah wait they start the
size of a where do you get these I find
mine on Amazon and that's the fastest
and easiest way to get water beads and
then I expand they do and we you know
they stay good for a long time we've had
these for about a week on my on my kids
play table and I like to add little
ocean figures just to give it another
aspect sharks this is such a cool idea
so while your kid is having a good time
they are learning and sharpening their
cognitive skills without
this little scissor scooper teaches them
to open and close and scoop and pour the
a lot of editing a lot of use out of
that what is this what are we doing with
this okay so my five-year-old daughter
loves to write she's all about learning
how to write in different letters and
words and so I put together a little
sand tray for her and all you do is you
just pour sand in a tray and shake it I
like to add a little salt salt salt rain
it's salt but you could use things got
it and this is just regular iodized salt
then and yes this one I used to make my
play-doh so I had leftover okay and then
I give her a paint brush and then I
would just give her a letter for example
and she would in the tray write the
letter O and then shake and move on to
the next letter oh it's like an
etch-a-sketch sort of yes strokes if
they mess up no stress
give it a shake and try again I love it
I don't know what the colors visually
stimulating to look at of course okay
what is this one okay this is for the
mom that doesn't really want to set
anything up I have created these
play-doh kits that I make at home I home
make the play-doh it's toxin free
all-natural and we have different kits
this is our bug kit which is a really
fun one from the boys I usually stick
the bugs in and peel them off and then
my kids get to match them up it's like a
little sensory puzzle and I also include
tongs if they want to put them in as
your fine motor skull these are great
ideas we're gonna put more on our
Facebook page so people can learn more
but thank you so much for stopping by
it's very important what you're doing if
you'd like more ideas to help your child
learn and develop visit Julie's blog
young wild and Friedmann calm thank you
thanks for coming